Against the backdrop of the deepening aging population in our country, the issue of elderly care has become a focus of attention for the whole society. As of the end of 2024, the elderly population aged 60 and above in China reached 310 million, accounting for 22% of the total population, and the elderly population aged 65 and above reached 220 million, accounting for 15.6% of the total population. The vast elderly population has given rise to diverse and multi-level elderly care needs. At the same time, problems such as imbalanced supply and demand of elderly care services, uneven urban-rural development, and insufficient integration of medical care and elderly care are becoming increasingly prominent. How to solve the dilemma of elderly care under the wave of aging? This year, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has identified the proposal on "promoting the integrated development of elderly care and elderly care industry" as a key supervisory suggestion, which will be hosted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The dilemma of elderly care is highlighted and urgently needs to be broken. Although the number of beds in elderly care service institutions has increased, it is still difficult to find a bed; The quality of nursing homes varies greatly, and it is not easy to find a high-quality nursing home; Many elderly people are accustomed to home-based elderly care, but lack professional home-based elderly care services and support, making it difficult for them to take care of their daily lives; With the growth of the elderly population, the demand for elderly care services in China is showing an explosive growth trend, as one person is disabled and the whole family is imbalanced. Disabled and semi disabled elderly people bring a heavy burden to family care. However, the current elderly care service system is unable to meet the growing demand, and the development of the elderly care industry is facing many bottlenecks. This has attracted high attention from National People's Congress deputies. Several representatives conducted in-depth research and found that the current elderly care service system in China is facing multiple structural contradictions. Wang Yali, a National People's Congress representative and director of the Fourth People's Hospital of Datong City, Shanxi Province, conducted a research and found that high-quality elderly care service resources are extremely scarce, and the construction of high-end facilities lags behind. The existing service model is difficult to match the personalized needs of the elderly in terms of life care, medical care, and spiritual comfort. The rural elderly care service facilities are rudimentary, the service content is single, and the income of rural elderly people is low, their payment ability is limited, and the supply-demand contradiction is more prominent. The integration of medical care and elderly care is an important way to address the medical and elderly care needs of the elderly. However, in actual research, representatives found that there are still many problems in policy coordination and resource integration in the integration of medical care and elderly care. Zhang Shu, a National People's Congress representative and Deputy Secretary General of the Expert Committee of the National Cardiovascular Disease Center, found in his research that 62.15% of elderly people suffer from chronic diseases, and there is a structural imbalance between community medical supply and the health management needs of the elderly. Li Haiyan, a National People's Congress representative and director of the Department of Neurology at Anyang People's Hospital in Henan Province, found that most medical institutions lack geriatric medicine and palliative care departments, and there is insufficient linkage and resource integration between primary healthcare and elderly care institutions. From the perspective of the elderly care industry, Zhao Ping, a member of the National People's Congress and an aircraft riveting fitter at Shaanxi Aircraft Industry Co., Ltd. of China Aviation Industry Group, has expressed concern about the low standardization level of the elderly care industry, inconsistent service and fee standards, and uneven service quality. At the same time, the investment environment is not perfect, social capital participation is not high, financing channels are not smooth, and investor return expectations are unclear. Several representatives also paid attention to the shortage of elderly care service talents. In the view of Meng Hongjuan, a National People's Congress representative and director of the Manufacturing Workshop 3 of Zhende Medical Supplies Co., Ltd. Shaoxing Factory, the shortage of professional talents in elderly care services and the lagging behind of professional construction cannot be ignored. Representatives continue to pay attention to precise suggestions. In response to the problems identified during the research, National People's Congress representatives actively provide suggestions and recommendations, including improving institutional design, enhancing service systems, optimizing funding guarantees, promoting the integration of medical care and elderly care, and strengthening talent cultivation. A series of suggestions have been put forward. Several representatives called for accelerating the legislative process of elderly care services, clarifying the scope, principles, management system, and responsibilities of all parties involved in elderly care services, and providing legal guarantees for the development of the elderly care industry and sector. Regarding how to improve the policy system and strengthen top-level design, Wang Yali suggested that the government increase funding, establish a basic elderly care service system, list and project government purchased services, strengthen supervision, and establish a sound quality evaluation mechanism. Meng Hongjuan calls for relaxing investment restrictions for pension management institutions, innovating pension insurance products, improving tax incentives, and strengthening the second and third pillars of pension security. Zhang Shu called for the formulation of special policies for embedded elderly care, clarifying measures such as financial subsidies and land support, and introducing service standards and fee cap regulations. Regarding how to further activate industrial vitality, promote diversified participation, and achieve better integration and development between the elderly care industry and the elderly care industry, Zhao Ping suggested supporting the research and development of smart elderly care products such as rehabilitation nursing and intelligent care, and promoting pilot projects for community leasing of rehabilitation assistive devices. Meng Hongjuan called for measures to attract social forces to participate in the construction of elderly care institutions and increase policy support for public nutrition elderly care institutions. The representatives' attention and suggestions on the topic of elderly care have provided valuable ideas and directions for promoting the integrated development of China's elderly care industry. The Ministry of Civil Affairs attaches great importance to the handling of representative suggestions as the host unit of this key supervision suggestion, and has held an internal mobilization meeting as soon as possible to deploy the handling of representative suggestions. It has established a handling responsibility system where the main leaders are responsible for the overall work, the leaders in charge directly handle it, and the responsible personnel handle it specifically. The handling of key supervision suggestions is regarded as an important lever to enhance consensus, draw wisdom, gather strength, and promote work. The relevant departments and bureaus of the Ministry of Civil Affairs will always strengthen communication, deepen exchanges, and build consensus throughout the entire process of handling, adhere to the principle of one case, one policy, actively intervene in the information platform for the work of National People's Congress deputies and government WeChat, proactively connect with deputies, fully play the leading and coordinating responsibilities of the host unit, actively understand the opinions and suggestions of the organizing unit on comprehensive issues involving multiple departments and cross fields, repeatedly and deeply communicate with deputies on policies and measures that they are concerned about, and jointly discuss solutions. During the process of handling, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, in conjunction with co organizers, conducted special investigations, seminars, research discussions, and field visits. Relevant representatives, experts and scholars, co organizers of the National People's Congress, and relevant departments were invited to hold senior meal promotion meetings in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, a symposium on the reform and development of elderly care services in Harbin, Heilongjiang, a consultation meeting on key supervision suggestions in Beijing, and conducted research on the coordinated development of the elderly care industry and the elderly care industry in Wuxi, Shanghai, Beijing, and other places in Jiangsu. Through in-depth investigations and symposiums, problems were identified, countermeasures were studied, and representative suggestions were transformed into policy systems, project plans, and specific measures to promote innovative development of elderly care services. Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has closely integrated the annual key work tasks and public concerns, deeply studied and absorbed the opinions and suggestions put forward by representatives, and achieved significant results. The legislative process of the Elderly Care Service Law is constantly accelerating, and it has been revised to form the Elderly Care Service Law (draft text proposal). In July, in conjunction with the Ministry of Natural Resources, a notice was issued on strengthening the planning and compilation of the layout of elderly care service facilities, guiding localities to scientifically plan facility layouts. At the same time, the development environment for elderly care services has been further optimized. In February, the United Nations Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued the "Several Measures to Promote the High Quality Development of Inclusive Elderly Care Services" and publicly announced the new profession of "Elderly Care Service Specialist" to the society. Issued the Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Vocational Skill Level Certification of Elderly Care Service Skilled Talents and the Implementation Plan for Special Training of Elderly Care Service Skilled Talents, with a plan to train 1.5 million skilled talents within 3 years. In terms of collaborative development, since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Finance have jointly implemented centralized care for economically disadvantaged disabled elderly people, providing care guarantees for moderately disabled and above elderly people in low-income families and elderly people in low-income families. They support "elderly parents+disabled children" to live together in elderly care institutions, and use central financial funds to support 59 pilot areas to carry out county-level elderly care service system and mechanism innovation. Arrange a central special lottery public welfare fund to subsidize 20000 meals to improve service capabilities. At present, 86000 elderly meal aids have been built. In addition, subsidies are provided through central and local fiscal funds for eligible elderly people with moderate to severe disabilities to purchase elderly care services, and pilot projects have been launched in seven regions including Shandong. Next, the Ministry of Civil Affairs will fully implement the decisions and arrangements of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, with deepening the reform and development of elderly care services as the guiding principle, promoting the realization of basic elderly care services for all elderly people, improving the policy mechanism for coordinated development of the elderly care industry and the elderly care industry, coordinating high-level safety and high-quality development of elderly care services, accelerating the construction of an elderly care service system suitable for China's national conditions, and better meeting the multi-level and diversified elderly care service needs of the elderly. (New Society)