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KMID : 1146320150030010001
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Journal of Health Technology Assessment
2015 Volume.3 No. 1 p.1 ~ p.3
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Long-Term Care Insurance Scheme: For Whom Does It Run?
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Suh Guk-Hee
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Abstract
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The number of people with dementia is increasing so rapidly that no society will reasonably be able to afford the costs of caring for them. Health and social care resources have been focused more on institutional care in many places. However, what is the final outcome of institutional care? Once institutionalized, life can become regulated, isolated, and limited. Often, many die alone in an isolated room of an institution. Abandonment and death can be the final outcome of institutional care; the hidden costs which people with dementia pay once institutionalized. A similar place in a society might be a prison, which may even be better in some cases. The philosophy of utilitarianism defined its fundamental axiom as “the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.” Jeremy Bentham’s greatest happiness principle, or the principle of utility, has been prevailing as the great standard in this world. It has been continuously insisted that for dependent people with dementia to live safely institutionalization must be provided. The same voice was heard when people were insisting on institutionalization of mentally ill people. The principles of majority rule and the protection of individual and minority rights would seem contradictory. Lawmakers and politicians only hear loud voices of the majority shouting to reduce caregiver burden by mandating for long-term care insurance to institutionalize dependent individuals with dementia, which we all well know is not necessarily the best fate. It is an example of tyranny of majority.
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KEYWORD
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Dementia, Long-term care, Insurance, Utility, Institution
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