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233,000 seniors in limbo on nurse care

The Asahi Shimbun

 February 6, 2003

At least 233,000 elderly people-five times as many as four years ago-are on waiting lists to enter special nursing-care homes, an Asahi Shimbun survey found.

The December 2002 survey indicates many elderly people prefer to be cared for in homes rather than receive domestic help-despite government emphasis on home-care support.

Ironically, the introduction in 2000 of the nursing-care insurance system, which stresses in-house support for elderly people, could be behind the dramatic rise in the number of senior citizens on waiting lists to enter nursing homes.

As part of a survey on nursing-care insurance, The Asahi Shimbun asked all the municipalities if they keep records of elderly people on waiting lists to enter special nursing-care homes. Valid responses were received from 86 percent.

More than 60 percent of respondents keep records, revealing that at least 233,000 elderly people are waiting to enter homes.

Individuals on waiting lists for more than one facility were only counted once.

In a separate telephone poll around the same time, The Asahi Shimbun asked all 47 prefectural governments for similar data.

In this case, about 200,000 elderly people in the 27 prefectures that keep records were on waiting lists.

Health ministry statistics for fiscal 1998 reveal that 47,000 people were in limbo.

The nursing-care insurance system, coupled with rising longevity, has been blamed for the skyrocketing number of elderly people waiting to enter nursing homes.

Before the system was introduced, residents of special nursing homes paid fees that reflected the size of their income.

But under the nursing-care insurance system, each resident now pays a flat 10 percent of the cost of their care.

Under the old system, potential residents applied to municipal authorities for a place in a nursing home.

Under the new system, however, potential residents deal directly with the nursing home.

Special nursing-care homes handle people who are at least 65 years old and who, due to physical and mental disabilities, require continuous daily care they cannot receive at home.

Nursing-care homes nationwide operate at near-capacity levels, however. As of October 2001, the homes were at 97-percent capacity, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare officials said. The maximum capacity is 314,000 residents nationwide.

As the number of elderly people applying to enter such homes soared, ministry officials in 2002 asked municipalities to devise criteria that would allow homes to decide which applicants most urgently require accommodation in the facilities.

But making the criteria transparent and convincing to all applicants is a tall order.


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