South Korea is projected to become the world’s most aged country by 2045, raising concerns about the fiscal sustainability of healthcare (HC) and long-term care (LTC) systems. This study examines the impact of long-term care insurance (LTCI) coverage expansions on healthcare utilization and expenditures in South Korea, using nationwide claims data from 2006 to 2019. We find that LTCI expansions reduced hospitalizations and inpatient days, potentially driven by improved management of chronic conditions and fall-related risks, suggesting substitution from HC to LTC. However, LTCI expansions consistently increased dementia-related outpatient visits, even during earlier expansions that did not explicitly target dementia. These findings suggest that while LTC can substitute for some healthcare services, it may also complement healthcare by improving access to dementia-related care.
 

Speaker: Eunkyeong Lee is a health economist and health policy researcher at the Korea Institute of Public Finance (KIPF), and a Visiting Scholar in the Asia Health Policy Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford University. Her research focuses on health policy, with particular interests in policy evaluation, population aging, public health, and improving the efficiency of healthcare expenditure. Her academic work has been published in Applied Economics and Korean peer-reviewed journals. At Stanford, she examines the effects of long-term care insurance (LTCI) and dementia-related policy changes on healthcare utilization and costs in South Korea.