Feminization of Ageing and Long Term Care Financing in Singapore

Feminization of ageing leads to issues relating to long term healthcare financing since females are more susceptible to chronic illnesses. This paper assesses the current provision of long-term care (LTC) in Singapore by first examining the health status of elderly female; and then estimates the present value of LTC expenses. We calibrate the LTC costs for institutional nursing homes, community homes and informal home-based care with domestic helper. We next evaluate the comprehensiveness of a private disability insurance scheme in Singapore (Eldershield) in capturing the expected share of LTC expenditures. We compare the policy comprehensiveness of Eldershield payouts for different utilizations of LTC at different levels of means-tested government subsidies. With subsidies, the LTC cost can be adequately covered by Eldershield; without any subsidies, Eldershield is able to capture 25% to 40% of the LTC costs. We also evaluate the LTC financing implications after an osteoporotic hip fracture surgery.