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Towards Ethically and Medically Sustainable Care for the Elderly: The Case of China

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Abstract

An enormous challenge facing China is how to provide sustainable care for its rapidly-increasing elderly population. Its recent policy directives include three medical forms—the institution-cooperation-form, the institution-medical-form, and the family-physician-form—to integrate medical care into ordinary care for the elderly. This essay indicates that China will not be able to maintain sustainable elderly care unless it places emphasis on the family-physician-form that focuses on family physicians and the use of primary care services. The essay constructs arguments for this policy suggestion based on China’s long-standing Confucian ethical resources of filial piety and family-based concerns for elderly care.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Policy, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR

    Wenye Xie & Ruiping Fan

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  1. Wenye Xie
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  2. Ruiping Fan
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Correspondence to Wenye Xie.

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Xie, W., Fan, R. Towards Ethically and Medically Sustainable Care for the Elderly: The Case of China. HEC Forum 32, 1–12 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-019-09391-7

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