The "Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Long term Care Insurance System" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") has been officially released recently. Long term care insurance, known as the "sixth insurance" of social security, has ended its ten-year pilot program and officially entered a new stage of comprehensive establishment. This institutional reform not only provides a clear sky for disabled families, but is also seen by the industry as a key lever to leverage the silver economy. With the continuous acceleration of China's aging population, the size of the disabled and dementia elderly population is also constantly expanding. According to data from the National Healthcare Security Administration, as of the end of 2025, the population aged 60 and above in China has reached 323 million, accounting for 23% of the total population; Among them, there are about 45 million elderly people with disabilities and dementia. A demographic study by Peking University shows that by 2030, the number of disabled elderly people in China will exceed 77 million, and they will experience a disability period of 7.44 years. Chen Zecen, Chairman of Flower Wisdom Elderly Care Group, said that the release of the "Opinions" has a "milestone" significance in China's response to the aging population process. The official implementation of the "Sixth Insurance" means that the care of disabled elderly people has been elevated from family responsibilities and civil affairs guarantees in the past to a national level social security system. The Opinion addresses the biggest pain points in the silver economy - willingness to pay and ability to pay. ”Chen Zecen said that in the past, it was difficult to scale up elderly care services, mainly due to the low willingness of C-end users to pay and the difficulty of B-end profitability. As the "sixth insurance", long-term care insurance greatly releases the rigid payment ability of disabled families through national credit endorsement and fund pool, and will truly activate the commercial closed loop of the elderly care industry. However, while institutional dividends are being released, the shortcomings on the supply side are becoming increasingly prominent. Chen Zecen believes that the coverage of basic elderly care services is rapidly expanding. After several pilot projects, China has significantly increased the supply of nursing beds, basic living care, and other aspects, which has initially solved the problem of "having or not having". But overall, there is still a 'structural mismatch' in supply. He pointed out that the current market supply presents a structural imbalance of "weak at both ends". On the one hand, there is still a shortage of professional medical nursing resources for elderly people with moderate to severe disabilities; On the other hand, there is a significant shortage of preventive interventions and rehabilitation services for mildly disabled and elderly people living alone. A large amount of resources are overly concentrated in the intermediate links, resulting in an ineffective closed-loop of precise matching between the long-term care insurance payment end and the service supply end. At the same time, Chen Zecen pointed out that professional nursing talents are facing a structural dilemma of "both quantity and quality shortage". Nursing staff have a low social status, weak professional identity, and unclear promotion paths, resulting in a very high turnover rate. Many institutions are trapped in a vicious cycle of 'unable to recruit, unable to retain, and lacking professionalism'. This also provides a broad stage for market-oriented forces. ”Chen Zecen stated that long-term care insurance is positioned as "basic insurance", but "basic" is the cornerstone, and "value-added" is the direction. Regarding the market opportunities brought by long-term care insurance, Wang Wenjun, Deputy Director of the National Medical Insurance Administration, recently stated that for the industry, long-term care insurance means "driving". It can be said that the establishment of this system has given birth to new formats and models, such as the research and development, production, and leasing of auxiliary equipment, disability level assessment, and the participation of social forces in handling, all of which can form new economic growth points. According to preliminary statistics, since the pilot program in 2016, long-term care insurance has driven social capital investment in related industries by over 60 billion yuan. According to data from the National Healthcare Security Administration, during the pilot period, the long-term care fund has purchased over 100 billion yuan worth of nursing services, with 12000 designated service institutions, which is 10 times higher than the initial pilot period. It is expected that after the full implementation of the system, billions of yuan of funds will enter the market every year, which will effectively reduce the uncertainty of long-term care market operations and enhance the confidence of operating entities to continue investing capital. For social capital, the real business opportunity may not lie in how the above-mentioned funds are allocated, but in how much space will be released for those needs that exceed the "basic payment" after the most basic care is covered by insurance. Liang Jialin, a standing committee member of the Public Hospital Medical Insurance Management Special Committee of the China Medical Insurance Research Association, predicts that after the expansion of long-term care insurance, more than three times the service coverage will be released. At the same time, providing higher-level health services beyond basic living care and general medical care will stimulate more demand for improvement. For example, providing family psychological therapy for ostomy patients who have lost their social dignity; Provide rehabilitation training to delay cognitive decline for patients with Alzheimer's disease; Provide infection prevention and home beauty care for burn rehabilitation patients; Install dynamic sign monitoring devices (such as blood oxygen monitoring) for bedridden patients and connect them in real-time to their families or medical institutions; In addition, scarce resources are also a service direction. For example, opening up a referral "green channel" to top hospitals such as the National Medical Center for patients with sudden changes in their condition. Chen Zecen also believes that from the perspective of market demand, as the post-60s generation enters the field of vision, they generally have higher consumption ability, more open consumption concepts, and stronger quality awareness. They are not satisfied with being 'managed', but rather pursue 'well managed', 'dignified', and 'personalized'. Therefore, high-end care and personalized services are not "niche needs", but "upgraded versions of rigid needs". In European countries or Hong Kong, where the population is deeply aging, a long-term care insurance industry chain has been extended. ”Liang Jialin stated that the combination of basic long-term care insurance and commercial long-term care insurance is expected to bring a market space of billions for innovative industries such as robot care (such as bathing, feeding, companionship, and assisted exercise), digital therapy (such as prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of mental and cognitive disorders, bone and muscle diseases), big data services (such as targeted institution management and fund holographic supervision), as well as mature industries such as elderly care services, rehabilitation aids, and long-term caregiver training. (New Society)