A growing burden too big to shoulder alone

Social experts are calling for an interprovincial integration of elderly services in Shanghai and its neighboring provinces.

Official data shows there were 4.58 million permanent residents in Shanghai who were aged 60 and older last year, accounting for more than 31 percent of the city’s registered population. In contrast, the national ratio is 16.7 percent.

The number of elderly people would soar to more than 5 million if non-permanent residents living in the city were taken into account as well, according to a recent research on population development and public policy by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

“It will be too hard for Shanghai to singlehandedly meet the extremely high demand for elderly services in the future. The number of permanent residents in the city is estimated to exceed 10 million in 2050,” said Zhou Haiwang, deputy director of the institute of population and development at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

Shanghai presently has about 700 nursing homes that only have enough beds for 133,000 senior residents, or 2.66 percent of the current elderly population aged 60 and above.

“There is an urgent need to integrate elderly services in Shanghai and its neighbors like Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces,” Zhou added.

He said these regions should accelerate the process of setting up an interprovincial medical insurance system and building an online platform for pension services. Zhou encouraged social organizations to be a part of the process.

Zhou Haiwang,

deputy director of the institute of population and development at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

China has in recent years been vigorously promoting quality public services for senior citizens by enacting several regulations and issuing a five-year plan (2016-20) on elderly care.

Beijing and neighboring areas like Tianjin and Hebei province signed an agreement in June last year to establish a pilot interprovincial medical insurance and more collaborative elderly services to cope with the aging problem in the capital.

As of December last year, 70 percent of the seniors residing in the Tianjin Wuqing Nursing Home were from Beijing. They pay 300 yuan ($44) per month for the service and receive a yearly allowance of 3,600 yuan from the Beijing government, as well as 1,050 yuan from the Tianjin government.

“The dual allowance can reduce the elderly residents’ living costs, elevate their living quality as well as boost their willingness to stay in another city during their twilight years,” Zhou said, before adding that the aging problem in Shanghai is even more severe than in Beijing.

Yin Zhigang, director of Shanghai Research Organization on Aging, said that there are several challenges, including complex medical reimbursement procedures in the municipality and neighboring provinces, that must first be tackled before interprovincial services can become a reality.

“Up till now, there is no cooperative regulation between Shanghai and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The elderly need more laws on pension services to support their choice of living in another city,” he said.

A survey published by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences in March showed that only less than 3 percent of the elderly people in Shanghai are willing to live in another city permanently after retirement.

“Policies and measures should be introduced to encourage those who are healthy and do not have family burdens to spend some part of their life after retirement in another place,” said Yin.

Some of the more affluent elderly, however, appear to have no qualms moving away from their home cities. Over in Xuyi county, Jiangsu province, the Teshan Lake Forest Park is an upscale retirement community that counts 10 couples from Shanghai among its first batch of 2,000 residents.

“We found that those who are well-educated and were well-paid before retirement are more interested in our community,” said Hua Yan, assistant to the general manager of the Nanjing Jinling Group Holdings, the main investor of the project.

“We will be increasing the exposure of our product in neighboring cities including Shanghai,” she added.

There is an urgent need to integrate elderly services in Shanghai and its neighbors like Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.”

Cao Chen contributed to this story.