Wives taking care of their poor husbands... ‘Family care’ has the highest utilization rate

The 'family care' system, in which care is provided by family members qualified as caregivers, was found to have the highest rate of use among low-income elderly men whose wives are caring for them.

Although long-term care insurance for the elderly was introduced to reduce the burden of care on families, it is pointed out that the structure of female spouses taking care of care amid economic difficulties still persists.

According to the 'Analysis of Gender and Class Effects of Family Care Use' published in the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs' academic journal 'Health and Social Research' on the 8th, researchers analyzed data from the National Health Insurance Corporation of 973,384 people aged 65 or older who received long-term care recognition for the first time from 2008 to 2019 and began using home benefits.

Family care is a system that allows long-term care recipients to receive care such as visiting care services from caregivers in a family relationship. Because caregivers who are family members are qualified and officially registered with the agency, they can receive wages within a certain limit.

As a result of the analysis, the proportion of people using family care at the time of receiving long-term care home benefits shows a gradual increase from 4.7% (4,305 people) in 2008 to 15.9% (19,599 people) in 2019.

Approximately one out of six people receiving long-term care home benefits uses care provided by a family member.

The use pattern of such family care differed depending on the gender or income level of the recipient.

When looking at male elderly recipients, when the wife was the main caregiver, the proportion of family members using nursing care was 14.25%, which was higher than when children were the main caregiver (10.78%).

Conversely, in the case of female elderly recipients, the rate of using family care when providing care to children, etc. was 13.13%, which was higher than that of cases where the husband was the main caregiver (8.82%).

Considering income level, low-income elderly men who were cared for by their wives had the highest percentage of family members using nursing care.

When elderly men who receive a reduction in their long-term care out-of-pocket costs had their spouse as their main caregiver, the proportion of family members using care was 16.98%, which was higher than that of elderly men who were not eligible for the reduction (13.51%).

This phenomenon was also found significantly in analyzes that controlled for socio-demographic influences such as health status, such as disability, and residential area, and it is interpreted that when a low-income male elderly man is cared for by his wife, the likelihood of using family care increases.

Researchers pointed out that the long-term care insurance system for the elderly was introduced to reduce the burden of family care, which was previously concentrated on women, and to strengthen 'social care', but with the allowance of family care, a significant number of elderly women became caregivers and took responsibility for care, and economic difficulties are encouraging this situation.

The researchers said, "The analysis results showing that the recipient's gender and income level influence decisions about family care raise questions about whether the current type of family care is truly in line with achieving the purpose of the long-term care system for the elderly." They suggested, "If the purpose of the long-term care system for the elderly is to universally guarantee the right to care for elderly people with mobility issues, service use should be possible regardless of gender and income."