Why Can’t We Take Care of the Elderly?
China has the largest number of elderly people in the world, which is also a developing country with the fastest aging population. The aging population has put tremendous pressure on China’s economy, politics, and society, especially the financial system, medical service system. The central reason for the aging society is the decline in the birth rate due to long-run one-child policy, lower death rate, and longer life span with the increasing economic conditions. Among them, population aging has a huge impact on the caring system of the elderly, and this caring system is an important line of defense for the elderly.
According to the article “ Does China have an aging problem?”, the author raises an essential disadvantage of the aging population, which is the decreasing productivity in China. In other words, the great percentage of the elderly and low birth rate over years means that the working-age population is reduced, so there is a much heavier burden on the working-age population to raise the young and care for the elderly. Also, since the elderly population increases, there are more elders needed to take care of, and the longer life span will extend the time for the elderly to receive pensions, which put heavy payment pressure on the government.
I agree that the aging society receives a heavy financial burden because of the elders, but it is not the most urgent problem. Rather, most elders are not able to afford medical care even with government funds. The frequency of illnesses and hospitalization costs for the elderly are significantly higher than the average. After retirement, the life expectancy of the population has increased, and the demand for medical insurance has risen. This is important because it illustrates that the medical care for the elders does not have sufficient resources, and the health-care insurance systems vary from region to region (Wang & Chen). Especially in the rural region, the younger generation usually stays in the urban areas for work, so the elders need to take care of themselves. Therefore, an article from Zhihu, the Chinese Quora, addresses that the elders usually won’t get on-time medical treatment when they are sick, and there are not medical services such as hospitals or nursing homes for them. As a result, these are all urgent problems needed to be solved in order to provide better living conditions for the elders.
https://chinapower.csis.org/aging-problem/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60443-8/fulltext#seccestitle10
