Characteristics, challenges and opportunities in the aging process

On March 5, entrusted by The State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission submitted to the first session of the 14th National People's Congress the Report on the implementation of the National Economic and Social Development Plan for 2022 and the Draft of the National Economic and Social Development Plan for 2023 (hereinafter referred to as the Report).

According to the report, the main tasks of the 2023 national economic and social development plan should include the development of elderly care and the elderly care industry, and actively respond to the aging population and fewer children; We will thoroughly implement the national strategy to actively respond to an aging population, develop elderly care services and the elderly care industry, expand the supply of inclusive elderly care, build a system of elderly care services that coordinate home-based community institutions and integrate medical and nursing care, strengthen health services and management for the elderly, and study a policy system to support the development of the silver-haired economy.

The passage of time is irreversible, and the individual is doomed to aging. At present, the aging of the global society has become irreversible, and China has become the country with the largest elderly population and one of the fastest aging countries in the world.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2022, China's population aged 60 or above will reach 280 million, accounting for 19.8 percent of the country's total population. The population aged 65 or above is 210 million, accounting for 14.9% of the total population. According to the forecast of the National Office on Aging, by 2033, China's elderly population will exceed 400 million, accounting for a quarter of the total population; It will peak at 487 million in 2053, accounting for more than one-third of the population.

Facing up to aging and understanding how demographic changes will affect social life is a matter for every individual in society. At present, China has entered the aging society for a short time, and the aging of population has the characteristics of large scale and fast speed. Compared with the developed countries that entered the aging society earlier, China faces greater challenges in dealing with the aging population.

On the whole, China's aging process has many "Chinese" characteristics: first, the problem of "getting old before getting rich" and "getting old before getting ready" is serious, the level of economic development is still relatively backward, and the social security system and public service policies are not complete; Second, the elderly population has strong heterogeneity and diverse levels of needs. Third, there are big differences between regions and urban and rural areas, and the challenges of rural old-age care are severe. Fourth, it has the advantages of the system and grass-roots organizations, and the multiple responsibility subjects exert joint efforts.

Recently, the 21st Century Business Herald and the Institute of Aging Research of Fudan University, the first domestic university entity think tank for aging research, jointly released the "Chinese style" elderly care Development Trend Report (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), based on the historical and cultural accumulation of Chinese society, the aging process, regional development and governance system, to explore the aging process. "Chinese" characteristics, challenges and opportunities.

Why do we need to talk about "Chinese" retirement?

The challenges brought by the aging population to the "Chinese style" pension are intuitive and complex. As a demographic phenomenon, aging will obviously change China's population structure, and this change will affect micro individuals, medium industries and macro society, and from all aspects of society, economy and culture.

The report pointed out that with the continuous advancement of the aging process, Chinese society will face problems such as weakening family functions, insufficient payment channels for elderly care services, rising demand for medical care, insufficient supply and shortage of rural elderly care services, and structural imbalance of urban elderly care services.

For example, the population structure will become increasingly older and families will become less functional. With the deepening of population aging and the growth of urbanization rate, China's family structure is becoming simpler, the proportion of elderly groups living with their children is declining, and the elderly's demand for social pension is rising.

The size of the semi-disabled population is increasing, and the demand for medical care services is rising. With the deepening of China's aging population, the proportion of the elderly and disabled and semi-disabled elderly increases, and the demand for nursing workers in care institutions will increase significantly.

The foundation of aging environment construction is poor, and the physical environment transformation lacks standard and depth. At present, the construction of aging environment in China is still in its infancy. There are two major problems in the aging transformation of physical environment: one is the lack of authoritative, unified and perfect aging transformation standards; Second, there are some phenomena of incomplete transformation and superficial transformation in the retrofit work that has been carried out.

Facing the aging population and actively grasping the "Chinese-style" opportunities of The Times

Challenges and opportunities are always two sides in one. How to follow the trend of The Times and grasp the development opportunities will be the key to the "Chinese style" pension solution and prosperity.

After clarifying the challenges faced by the "Chinese style" pension, the "Report" further sorts out the opportunities that can be grasped by the current "Chinese style" pension from five perspectives: macro policy environment, traditional cultural background, wealth accumulation of the elderly, development of science and technology and integration of the pension industry.

For example, the policy environment. At present, the issue of aging is regarded as a strategic and overall issue related to the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, and the construction of a modern socialist country. The development of "Chinese style" pension will continue to be in a more favorable macro policy environment for a long time, if we can fully grasp this policy opportunity, we can catalyze the opportunity into a dividend.

Traditional cultural background. Chinese traditional family nursing culture has lasted for thousands of years. In the context of Chinese culture and living situation, family and community have their own unique connotation. "Chinese style" elderly care undoubtedly has unique family cultural advantages, and our "community" is also different from the West, the "community" in the Chinese cultural context is born out of the traditional neighborhood culture and local tradition, is a collection of many families into "extended family", closer to the concept of "community".

Old age wealth accumulation. The per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents in China continues to grow, if we can formulate and improve relevant policies to effectively cultivate the consumption demand of the elderly population, we can grasp the opportunity in time, fully tap the consumption potential of the elderly in the future, and promote the vigorous development of "Chinese style" pension.

Pension industry integration. The report conducted in-depth research on infrastructure and service institutions in the pension market and found that at present, cross-field cooperation in the pension market such as finance, medical care and real estate has been very common, and multiple entities have actively participated and organically integrated.

Take Ping An, An integrated financial group (39.270, 0.08, 0.20%) as an example. In recent years, Ping An has launched the Chinese version of "managed care model", integrating market suppliers related to medical care, health management and elderly care services on behalf of payers, and accumulating advantages in platform integration. The integration model of "financial security + health management + quality pension" and "insurance security + health management + quality pension" will be formed, and industrial ecology such as "finance + pension" and "finance + health" will be laid out.

Ping An elderly care service model has three characteristics. First, the active layout of "finance + pension" and "finance + health" innovation based on financial products. On the pension fund side, Ping An launched a variety of financial products such as personal pension, pension annuity, tax-deferred pension insurance, commercial pension insurance, long-term care insurance, etc. Ping An Bank (9.290, -0.01, -0.11%), Ping An Life Insurance, Ping An Pension Insurance and Ping An Fund actively participated in the layout summary of the third pillar personal pension. The second is to build a full life cycle elderly care service system based on the advantages of the Group's financial medical technology integration. Ping An has created a trinity service model of "insurance + health management", "insurance + home care" and "insurance + high-end health care", of which home care has covered more than 40 cities, and high-end health care has been successively launched in first-tier cities such as Shekou in Shenzhen, Liwan in Guangzhou and Jing 'an in Shanghai. And for the new first-tier cities such as Foshan launched the "leisure city" project. The third is to accurately target the needs of elderly care and provide exclusive customized services. Whether it is health management, high-quality nursing communities or home care services, Ping An has always been committed to improving the user experience and providing high-quality elderly care solutions for the elderly.

The aging process is still accelerating. While anchoring development opportunities, the construction of the elderly service system should also grasp the window period, promote the development of science and technology and industry related to healthy aging, and strengthen the support of information technology such as the Internet and big data for the health of the elderly.

It is worth mentioning that the "report" pointed out that at present, the development stage of China's elderly care service has developed from the "strong institution" model in the early stage of establishment to the current "high-quality" model. In general, the basic framework of China's elderly care service system is gradually clear, the construction of policies and regulations is constantly promoted, the diversified investment pattern of elderly care services is gradually formed, the coverage is gradually expanded, and the capacity building is constantly enhanced. China's elderly care service policy formulation has also changed from focusing on family and individual responsibility to paying equal attention to multiple subjects, from emphasizing the development of a single policy to focusing on the construction of a comprehensive policy system, from focusing on macro reform to emphasizing fine development. In the past decade, China's elderly care service system has experienced leapfrog development, but it is still in its initial stage. Looking forward to the next ten years, it will tend to be mature and qualitative, and move towards high-quality development.