Associations of Demand for Private Long-Term Care Insurance, Willingness to Pay, and Precautionary Savings with Preferences for Long-Term Care Systems

• Published in: Tai Da Guan Li Lun Cong 2023-04, Vol.33 (1), p.117
• Main Authors: Ying-Che Tsai, 蔡英哲
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Long term care insurance; Long term health care; Willingness to pay
• ISSN: 1018-1601; 2410-2490
• DOI: 10.6226/NTUMR.202304_33(1).0004

The affordability of Long-term Care (LTC) services under Taiwan’s tax-funded LTC Plan 2.0 for the Taiwanese people who need them, and the preference differences between Taiwan’s current system and the mandatory public LTC insurance systems of other countries are topics that remain under debate. We survey Taiwanese individuals (both LTC demanders and LTC non-demanders) to determine whether the financial burden associated with LTC services is mitigated through the following finance-related behaviors: demand for LTC insurance, willingness to pay, and precautionary saving motives, and whether these three factors significantly influence their choice of LTC systems. Our empirical results reveal that the respondents who exhibit higher levels of the three aforementioned finance-related behaviors tend to prefer the public LTC insurance system over the tax-funded LTC Plan 2.0 system. Moreover, the respondents who prefer the public LTC insurance system are predominantly male, married, working-class, aged between 40 and 64 years, earning less than NT$1,990,000 annually, genuinely concerned about their longevity, and anxious about having to make future LTC payments.