China News Service, Lanzhou, October 27 (Liu Xuemei) From January to September this year, Gansu Province’s 11 categories of people’s livelihood expenditures were 296.1 billion yuan, accounting for 80% of the total fiscal expenditures. "We need to make people's livelihood policies accurate, direct, and heart-warming." Liang Chen, deputy director of the Gansu Provincial Department of Finance, said on the 27th.
Recently, the General Office of the Gansu Provincial Government issued the "Implementation Plan for Establishing a Long-term Care Insurance System in Gansu Province." On the 27th, the Gansu Provincial Government Information Office held a policy interpretation press conference. The implementation plan marks a new stage in Gansu Province's long-term care insurance system from pilot exploration to unified, standardized operation and comprehensive rollout across the province.
The picture shows an elderly man in Lanzhou exercising in a park in the city. (Data map) Photo by Gao Wen
The long-term care insurance system is an important measure to solve the problem of family care for disabled people and a practical policy to protect people's livelihood.
Liang Chen said that Gansu's expenditure on people's livelihood has continued to increase, and the protection of key areas has been solid and effective. In particular, it has maintained and increased fiscal subsidies for social security funds. The province's fiscal subsidy revenue for social insurance funds at all levels accounts for 30% of the total fund revenue. It continues to support and improve the multi-level social security system, improve institutional mechanisms, consolidate insurance coverage, strive to optimize financing and benefit adjustment mechanisms, and steadily improve the level of social security benefits.
In order to promote the smooth operation of the long-term care insurance system, Gansu provides fiscal subsidies for unemployed urban and rural residents to participate in long-term care insurance in accordance with regulations. The ratio of financial subsidies to individual contributions is 1:1, and financial subsidy funds are jointly borne by the central, provincial, municipal and county finance levels. After urban and rural residents formally participate in the insurance and pay premiums, the financial department will promptly and fully implement the financial subsidy funds.
The financial department will provide subsidies for the individual contributions of eligible needy groups participating in the insurance on a classified basis. Among them, the individual payment portion of the extremely poor people will be fully subsidized; the individual payment portion of the subsistence allowance recipients and those eligible to prevent returning to poverty and falling into poverty will be given a fixed amount of funding. Funds for subsidizing insurance are mainly disbursed through medical assistance subsidy funds.
In terms of budget preparation, the Gansu Provincial Department of Finance, together with the medical insurance and other departments, has included long-term care insurance funds in the scope of social insurance fund budget preparation, and scientifically prepared fund revenue and expenditure budgets. In terms of account management, the long-term care insurance fund will be included in the special financial account management of the social security fund, with separate accounts, separate accounting, and dedicated funds.
Wang Shuncheng, director of the Benefits and Security Department of the Gansu Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau, said, "The long-term care insurance fund is mainly used to pay for nursing services that comply with the service catalog. In principle, it does not directly distribute cash to disabled people, but provides services and reimburses expenses. This is to ensure that the fund can be used for care of disabled people so that they can truly benefit."
In terms of reimbursement ratio, considering the difference in actual payment levels between employees and residents, it is determined that the fund payment ratio for employee insured personnel is about 70%, and the fund payment ratio for unemployed urban and rural residents is about 50%. In order to ensure the sustainability of the fund, the annual maximum payment limit of the fund has been determined, which does not exceed 50% of the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents in the coordinated area in the previous year.
How to provide disabled people with better quality and professional nursing services?
Xiao Bin, director of the Medical Service Management Division of the Gansu Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau, said, "Gansu focuses on the shortage of talents and insufficient skill levels in the long-term care industry, continues to improve the occupational recognition and skills training system, and continues to expand the team of professional care talents to better meet the care service needs of the majority of disabled people."
The Gansu Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau, in conjunction with the Human Resources and Social Security Department, selected two professional training institutions as the province's long-term nurse professional skill level certification agencies, and organized and carried out the professional skill level certification of long-term nurses on a regular basis. Up to now, 10 batches of primary and intermediate examinations for long-term nurses have been organized and completed, and 2,676 people have obtained vocational skill level certificates. We have actively expanded the supply of professional and standardized nursing service teams, and provided strong support for promoting standardized evaluation, professional growth, and certified employment of practitioners.
In terms of building a global training network, Gansu guides cities and states to actively select compliant training institutions, connect skill training subsidy policies, reduce the cost of mass participation in training, activate the vitality of institutional cultivation, and promote long-term care skills training to reach the grassroots and benefit the masses. As of now, there are 43 registered long-term care nurse designated training institutions in various cities and states, and Lanzhou, Tianshui, Dingxi and other places have regularly carried out skills training for more than 2,500 people, providing a solid talent reserve for improving the quality and expansion of long-term care services.
