title: Utilization of long-term care services under the public long-term care insurance program in Korea: Implications of a subsidy policy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  South Korea introduced public long-term care insurance (LTCI) in 2008. This study examined the patterns of and factors associated with public long-term care (LTC) utilization among older LTCI beneficiaries in Korea, with special attention to the policy for subsidizing the co-payments of lower income populations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a 5% national representative sample of 280,290 older people aged 65 or older obtained from the 2010 national LTCI claims database, we examined socio-demographic and health factors associated with service utilization decisions, service type chosen, and the intensity of service use.
  
  
  RESULTS
  About 5.48% of older adults in 2010 utilized the LTC provided under the Korean public LTCI, among which about 26.1% received a subsidy. Compared to their counterparts, the subsidized users were more likely to be low-income, female, and living alone. They were more likely to choose institutionalized care and spend to their monthly benefit limit while paying a lower co-payment. The factors associated with pattern and intensity of LTC utilization were not the same between subsidized and non-subsidized users.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings imply the subsidy policy promotes equity of access to public LTC services. Further evaluation is necessary on the impact of the policy on the effectiveness of LTC utilization by socially marginalized populations.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Public Health and Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, South Korea. hk65@snu.ac.kr
authors.forename: Hongsoo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Soonman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.forename: Nan-He
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Kyung-Rae
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Hyun
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D005380:Financing, Government; D006291:Health Policy; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007353:Insurance, Long-Term Care; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D017150:Public Sector; D056910:Republic of Korea