In 2008, South Korea introduced a universal, public long-term care insurance to complement the existing national health insurance. The LTCI covers residential, domiciliary and community-based care. By the end of 2018, approximately 9% of the population aged 65 and older were eligible for LCTI coverage (source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01634372.2020.1797977).

A shortage of qualified home-based care services in South Korea means that most older people have no choice but to depend heavily on residential institutional care. From 2012 to 2017, the number of long-term residential care facility beds per thousand people aged 65 years old and over significantly increased from 51.1 to 60.9, and the number of beds in long-term care hospitals was  36.7 per thousand people, the highest among OECD countries  (source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01634372.2020.1797977).

Long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) under the national health insurance play a role in long-term care provision; the average length of stay at such hospitals was about 168 days per year in 2016 Lengthy hospitalizations are likely a result of residential institutional care being financially supported by the national health insurance (NHI) and Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) (source: The-Long-Term-Care-COVID19-situation-in-South-Korea-7-May-2020.pdf).