With a rapidly aging global population, Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI) for older people is a pressing policy issue. While long-term care services are designed to assist people with limited functional ability, the breadth of coverage considerably varies from country to country. There is a debate on the costs of such programs and the adequacy of benefits. Understanding the impacts of LTCI programs is central to informing LTCI policies as few countries have embraced them. In 2008, the Korean government initiated a national public contributory LTCI program to help older people lead more independent and secure lives and support family caregivers. We use the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS) and a difference-in-differences model combined with propensity score matching to assess the effect of the program on self-rated health, healthcare utilization, household expenditures, and savings. While older adults in beneficiary households tend to have better self-rated health and receive fewer regular health check-ups, those with inpatient visits tend to stay longer in the hospital compared to those in non-beneficiary households. We find that LTCI beneficiary households have lower savings and higher out-of-pocket healthcare expenses compared to non-beneficiary households. Overall, results suggest a positive effect of LTCI on self-rated health but detrimental effects on household out-of-pocket healthcare expenses and savings for those with less comprehensive health insurance coverage, the near-poor, and older singles. LTCI requires further research and policy attention in Korea and beyond.

随着全球人口迅速老龄化，针对老年人的长期护理保险 (LTCI) 是一个紧迫的政策问题。虽然长期护理服务旨在帮助功能有限的人，但覆盖范围因国家而异。关于此类计划的成本和福利的充分性存在争议。了解LTCI 计划的 影响  是通知 LTCI 政策的核心，因为很少有国家接受这些政策。2008 年，韩国政府发起了一项全国性的公共捐助 LTCI 计划，以帮助老年人过上更加独立和安全的生活，并支持家庭护理人员。我们使用韩国福利小组研究 (KOWEPS) 和差异中的差异模型结合倾向得分匹配来评估该计划对自评健康、医疗保健利用、家庭支出和储蓄的影响。虽然受益家庭中的老年人往往有更好的自我评估健康状况并且接受的定期健康检查较少，但与非受益家庭的老年人相比，住院患者的住院时间往往更长。我们发现，与非受益家庭相比，LTCI 受益家庭的储蓄较低，自付费用医疗费用较高。总体而言，结果表明 LTCI 对自我评估的健康有积极影响，但对那些医疗保险覆盖面较窄的人、近乎贫困的人和年长单身的人来说，对家庭自付费用医疗费用和储蓄产生不利影响。LTCI 需要在韩国及其他地区进行进一步的研究和政策关注。