13th Five-Year Plan for Elderly Care Promulgated

The State Council recently issued a five-year plan on elderly care, clearly spelling out the goals and principal tasks for promoting the development of undertakings for the elderly and establishing the elderly care system during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020).

The plan (see full text in Chinese) sets the following goals for 2020: 90% of urban workers and urban and rural residents will be covered by basic old age insurance; basic medical insurance coverage will stay above 95%; the percentage of government nursing home beds will not exceed 50%, with nursing beds accounting for at least 30%; 70% of elderly people above 65 years of age will have health management; and the coverage of grass-roots elderly people’s associations in urban and rural communities will exceed 90%.

The Plan puts forward principal tasks in the following eight respects:

1. Improving and perfecting the social security system;

2. Improving the elderly care service system;

3. Improving the health support system;

4. Igniting the consumer market for senior citizens;

5. Promoting the building of a suitable living environment for the elderly;

6. Enriching the spiritual and cultural life of senior citizens;

7. Expanding senior citizens’ social participation; and

8. Protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly.