Two men have lunch at an elderly care center in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang Province on November 28, 2013. Photo: IC

China may still have a fast-growing economy, but it is also an aging country with a growing elderly care burden.

More than 200 million Chinese people are now at least 60 years old, with 3.7 million of them requiring daily care, according to data released by China's Ministry of Civil Affairs on Thursday.

In recent years, the central government has made efforts to help the elderly through providing subsidies for them and investing in the elderly care industry, but it is still not an easy job for many Chinese families to look after their aged parents. 

Need for nursing homes

Official data shows that at the end of 2013, China had 42,475 State-owned and private elderly care institutions with 4.93 million beds in total, 18.9 percent more than in 2012. But that still means there are only 24.4 beds available for every 1,000 Chinese people aged 60 or older.

Tian Wei, a Beijing-based college teacher, found a place for his 85-year-old mother at Beijing No.4 Social Welfare Institution in 2011.

"Fortunately we only had to wait for two months before getting a bed, maybe because the institution added more beds that year," he told the Global Times on Sunday.

Beijing No.4 Social Welfare Institution is one of Beijing's oldest welfare institutions. With financial support from the municipal government, it was originally founded to take care of orphans and elderly people without families.

Now it also works as a fee-paying nursing home for elderly people, with about 80 old people currently staying there.

Due to the increasing demand, the institution changed most of its single-bed rooms into twin-bed rooms in 2011.

But a shortage of beds in the elderly care facilities in the country is not the only problem faced by Chinese families.

Tian's mother has lost her ability to move due to a brain hemorrhage, so she needs nursing aid around the clock. At the institution, two old people share a bedroom and a nursing aid worker.

Before making the choice, Tian visited many nursing homes, both State-owned and private ones.

The fees at some private nursing homes can be as high as 10,000 yuan ($1,634) per month but most of them, especially the private ones, refuse to accept elderly people who need around-the-clock nursing care.

"These old people have the most urgent need for nursing homes, and medical care services are very important," said Tian. 

Home-based services

Even if a family can find a satisfactory and affordable care home for their parents, most of the elderly prefer to stay at home with necessary care services.

Only 12 percent of the people older than 75 in Beijing are willing to move into nursing homes, and then only if they require 24-hour nursing care, Beijing-based newspaper Economic Daily reported on Wednesday.

Yan Bin, a 50-year-old Beijing resident, and his wife together look after his elderly parents at their home. But he told the Global Times Saturday that if his parents suffered a severe decline in their health, he would need a nursing aid worker.

There is strong demand for home-based care services - nursing and medical services that can be delivered to people's homes - both from the elderly who are not willing to leave home and people like Yan who prefer for their parents to stay with them. But there is a serious lack of capacity in the industry.

By the end of 2013, only half of Chinese cities and 20 percent of rural areas had access to home-based care services, according to the Economic Daily report.

According to official data, China will need at least 2 million nursing aid workers by 2020, and the total number at the moment is less than 300,000, the report said.

Some care service providers, such as Beijing Ci'aijia Elder Care Co, are trying to profit from the growing demand. Ci'aijia provides nurses or nursing aid workers to go to customers' homes to provide services ranging from general care to medical care or rehabilitation after surgery.

The company is developing new services, and the fees will depend on the services required, a member of the customer service staff told the Global Times on Sunday. For instance, an hour and a half of rehabilitation training costs 300 yuan.

Some customers also require live-in nursing aid workers, she said, noting that the price of such 24-hour services are much higher. But she did not give the prices.

High prices

Chinese people may find themselves getting old before they become well-off, according to a research report on China's aging society and elderly care released by Tsinghua University in March.

The UN defines an aging society as one in which 7 percent of the population is aged 65 or older. But most developed economies that have become aging societies did so after achieving per capita GDP of $10,000, and have enough money to take care of the elderly, the Tsinghua report said.

China, which has been an aging society since 2000, reached per capita GDP of just $6,629 in 2013, according to IMF data. So, many of China's elderly people could fall into poverty, the report said.

With its aging population, China should have a fair and sustainable pension system and a developed elderly care service industry, the Tsinghua report noted. There should also be an effort to extend people's working years, it said.

"A twin-bed room costs 2,000 yuan per month and you also have to pay 3,000 yuan each month for a nursing aid worker, not to mention the medical treatment and nutrition requirements," Tian said.

Tian's mother, who was an associate professor, gets a pension of 4,000 yuan per month, Tian said, which cannot cover the nursing bills. 

The average pension for retirees nationwide was just above 2,000 yuan per month in 2014 after the State Council increased the pension on January 1. Even in Beijing, the average pension is only about 3,000 yuan, official data showed.

In addition to nursing services, medical treatment is also a heavy financial burden.

Tian's mother has suffered from Alzheimer's disease for about six years and the cost of the monthly medicine for it is about 2,000 yuan.

Although the central government is expanding the list of products included in medical insurance, the medicine for Alzheimer's disease was not covered in medical insurance in Beijing until 2013, Tian said.