CAREGIVER COST BURDENS FAMILIES

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When a family member is hospitalized, hiring a caregiver is quite common. However, the financial burden on families can be quite significant, as caregiving fees can reach up to 5 million won per month. The problem is that this burden continues even after they're discharged from the hospital. We take a close look into the situation.

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This patient in her 80s became bedridden after suffering a stroke. Her care is left up to her daughter who has already put in a hard day's work.

[Soundbite] "Mom, what's your daughter's name? Do you remember?"

Hiring a caregiver was the only option for her when her mother was hospitalized. Because she couldn't stop working. The problem was the cost of hiring help which could go up as high as five million won a month.

[Soundbite] Jung Gyeong-eun(Seoul resident) : "I remember that it used to cost 110,000 won per day. But it went up to 150,000 won by the time my mother was discharged during the pandemic."

The care needed for her mother continued to burden her finances and time back at home, even after she was discharged from the hospital. Her mother is classified as Grade 1 long term care recipient, entitling her to a professional caregiver's help four hours a day. But she needs an additional one million won per month if she wanted to hire a homecare nurse that can take care of her mother until she returns home from work. And it is also up to the family to care for the stroke patient at nights and on the weekends.

[Soundbite] Jung Gyeong-eun(Seoul resident) : "As soon as I come home, I turn her position and change her diapers until 10 p.m."

It is urgent to lessen the families' care burden by expanding a nursing and care integrated service in which nurses and nursing assistants also serve as caregivers. Promoting a home visit system by medical professionals after a patient is discharged would also be needed.

[Soundbite] Prof. Chung Soon-dool(Ewha Womans Univ.) : "The issue is that when medical professionals visit patients at home, they use up a lot of time because they have to see a lot of patients."

Experts, however, suggest that a long term solution is to increase health insurance coverage of nursing costs in phases.