Spire Speaks About Elder-Care in Korea at the 9th Intracom Conference in KL

Gurugram, India, February 29, 2020 --(PR.com)-- Spire was honored to participate in the 9th International Conference of Traditional and Complementary Medicine held on 3rd-5th August in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Dr Justin Lee, Managing Director of Spire Research and Consulting in South Korea, shared insights on the state of Korea’s Silver Towns and national health insurance.

Korea became an aging society in 2000 and an aged society in 2018. Dr Lee discussed aging in Korea and the role of Korea’s national health insurance system as a long term care system for the elderly. Such a system was necessitated by a considerable decline in elderly family care, seniors having insufficient retirement funds and rising medical expenses.

Retirement villages or Silver Towns, a type of residential community only for the elderly, are widespread in South Korea. These include formats such as Idyllic Detached Housing (IDHC), Senior Welfare House (SWH) and Senior Community Homes (SCH).

Korea’s Elderly Long-term Care Insurance Law (LTCI) was passed in 2007, which requires improved facilities and services, infrastructure and manpower to provide good treatment in intermediate and long-term care facilities (ILTC) for the elderly.
Dr Lee opined that more needs to be done to improve elder-care in Korea. For example, preventive services are still weak.