Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T21:34:19.644Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Farewell to old legacies? The introduction of long-term care insurance in South Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2012

JIN WOOK KIM  and
YOUNG JUN CHOI
JIN WOOK KIM
Affiliation:
Department of Social Welfare, Sogang University, Seoul, South Korea.
YOUNG JUN CHOI*
Affiliation:
Department of Public Administration, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
*
Address for correspondence: Young Jun Choi, Department of Public Administration, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

South Korea has been experiencing unprecedented socio-economic transformations in which an ageing population is widely regarded as a key challenge. As an unlikely consensus on state intervention in care has emerged since early 2000, South Korea has achieved rapid development of welfare state programmes. The introduction of long-term care insurance (LTCI) in 2008 is one of the important steps. However, it is still highly debatable whether the Korean welfare state has departed from its path of both developmentalism and Confucianism. This paper aims to analyse the nature of LTCI in South Korea and to examine whether its introduction could mean a divergence from these two important policy legacies. This research has reached an ambiguous conclusion. The regulatory role of the government and concerns about the costs of LTCI are regarded as a developmentalist legacy, whereas Confucian legacies seem to be withering away since LTCI shifts care responsibility from the family to the state. However, the study found that the state has difficulty in regulating the market and costs, and deeply embedded familialism seems difficult to overcome.

Keywords

long-term care insurancelong-term careKorean welfare statedevelopmentalismConfucianism
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 33 , Issue 5 , July 2013 , pp. 871 - 887
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asia Economy 2012. LTCI new 24,000 beneficiaries, 8 March. Available online at http://www.asiae.co.kr/news/view.htm?idxno=2012030717411953607 [accessed 8 March 2012].Google Scholar
Aspalter, C. 2006. The East Asian welfare model. International Journal of Social Welfare, 15, 4, 290–301.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. C., Ikegami, N. and Kwon, S. 2009. Policy learning and cross-national diffusion in social long-term care insurance: Germany, Japan and the Republic of Korea. International Social Security Review, 62, 4, 63–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chau, R. and Yu, W. K. 2005. Is welfare unAsian? In Walker, A. and Wong, C.-k. (eds), East Asian Welfare Regimes in Transition: From Confucianism to Globalisation. The Polity Press, Bristol, UK, 21–45.Google Scholar
Choi, Y. J. 2006. Transformations in economic security during old age in Korea: the implications for public pension reform. Ageing & Society, 26, 4, 549–65.Google Scholar
Chung, M. 2009. Viability and problem of the quasi-market delivery system in the long-term care insurance: lessons from the Korean and Japanese cases. Paper presented at ‘Asian Social Protection in Comparative Perspective’, 7–9 January, National University of Singapore.Google Scholar
Deyo, F. 1992. The political economy of social policy formation: East Asia's newly industrialised countries. In Applebaum, R. P. and Henderson, J. (eds), States and Development in Asian Pacific Rim. Sage, London, 289–306.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. 1997. Hybrid or unique? The Japanese welfare state between Europe and America. Journal of European Social Policy, 7, 3, 179–90.Google Scholar
Gough, I. 2004. East Asia: the limits of productivist regimes. In Gough, I., Wood, G., Barrientos, A., Bevan, P., Davis, P. and Room, G. (eds), Insecurity and Welfare Regimes in Asia, Africa, and Latin America: Social Policy in Developmental Contexts. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 169–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greve, B. 2009. Can choice in welfare states be equitable? Social Policy & Administration, 43, 6, 543–56.Google Scholar
Hangyerae 2011. ‘4 hours care… what fraud?, 21 July. Available online at http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/488327.html [Accessed 22 February 2012].Google Scholar
Hankookilbo 2011. Benefit reduction for family care-givers, 14 June. Available online at http://news.hankooki.com/lpage/society/201106/h2011061402331821950.htm [Accessed 20 February 2012].Google Scholar
Holliday, I. 2000. Productivist welfare capitalism: social policy in East Asia. Political Studies 48, 4, 706–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holliday, I. 2005. East Asian social policy in the wake of the financial crisis: farewell to productivism? Policy and Politics, 33, 1, 145–62.Google Scholar
Ji, E. G. 2009. Social welfare privatization and long term care insurance for the elderly. Korean Social Policy, 15, 2, 99–143. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Johnson, C. 1982. MITI and the Japanese Miracles: The Growth of Industrial Policy 1925–75. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Jones, C. 1993. The Pacific challenge: Confucian welfare states. In Jones, C. (ed.), New Perspectives on the Welfare State in Europe. Routledge, London, 198–217.Google Scholar
Kang, H. 2008. Employment policy in the social service sector. Health and Welfare Forum, 2008, 10, 34–45. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Kim, H. 2009. Assessment on social service job creation. Monthly Labour Review, 2009, 10, 20–36. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Kim, M.-H., Lee, E.-Y., Park, J.-H., and Kim, M.-K. 2009. A study on implementation factors of infrastructure expansion policy in long-term care service. Korea Journal of Social Welfare Studies, 40, 3, 5–40. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Kim, Y.-M. 2008. Beyond East Asian welfare productivism in South Korea. Policy and Politics, 36, 1, 109–26.Google Scholar
Kono, M. 2005. The welfare regime in Japan. In Walker, A. and Wong, C.-k. (eds), East Asian Welfare Regimes in Transition: From Confucianism to Globalisation. The Polity Press, Bristol, UK, 117–44.Google Scholar
Korea Development Institute 2010. Current Issues in the Long Term Care Insurance and Policy Implications. Korea Development Institute, Seoul. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Kwon, H. 2005. An overview of the study: the developmental welfare state and policy reforms in East Asia. In Kwon, H. (ed.), Transforming the Developmental welfare State in East Asia. Palgrave, UNRISD, London, 1–23.Google Scholar
Kwon, S. 2008. Future of long-term care financing for the elderly in Korea. Journal of Ageing and Social Policy, 20, 1, 119–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kwon, S. and Holliday, I. 2007. The Korean welfare state: a paradox of expansion in an era of globalization and economic crisis. International Journal of Social Welfare, 16, 3, 242–8.Google Scholar
Lee, H. 1999. Globalization and the emerging welfare state: the experience of South Korea. International Journal of Social Welfare, 8, 1, 23–37.Google Scholar
Lee, J. and Lee, E. 2009. A study on the policy-making process of long-term care insurance in Korea. Korea Care Management Research, 3, June, 113–35. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Lee, M. 2008. Issues of the long-term care insurance and policy agenda. Welfare Trends, 11, 11, 38–46. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family 2009. One Year of Long-term Care Insurance for the Elderly. Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family, Seoul. (In Korean)Google Scholar
National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC) 2010. Future Strategies for Better Health Security. NHIC, Seoul. (In Korean)Google Scholar
National Statistical Office 2011. Statistics for the Elderly. National Statistical Office, Seoul. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2011. Pensions at a Glance 2011. OECD, Paris.Google Scholar
Rieger, E. and Leifried, S. 2004. The welfare state and social policy in East Asia: religion and globalisation. In Rieger, E. and Leifried, S. (eds), Limits to Globalisation. The Polity Press, Cambridge, 241–335.Google Scholar
Seoulsinmoon 2008. Inappropriate care-giver education, 14 June.Google Scholar
Sung, S. 2003. Women reconciling paid and unpaid care work in a Confucian welfare state: the case of South Korea. Social Policy and Administration, 37, 4, 342–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sunwoo, D. 2011 Current issues in Long-Term Care Insurance in Korea. Seoul, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. (In Korean)Google Scholar
Tang, K. 2000. Social Welfare Development in East Asia. Palgrave, New York.Google Scholar
Walker, A. and Wong, C. 2005. Conclusion: from Confucianism to globalisation. In Walker, A. and Wong, C.-k. (eds), East Asian Welfare Regimes in Transition: From Confucianism to Globalisation. The Polity Press, Bristol, UK, 213–24.Google Scholar
White, G. and Goodman, R. 1998. Welfare Orientalism and the search for an East Asian welfare model. In Goodman, R., White, G. and Kwon, H. (eds), The East Asian Welfare Model: Welfare Orientalism and the State. Routledge, New York, 3–24.Google Scholar
Yao, X. 2000. An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar