Taiwan Elderly Care Services

The Taiwan National Development Council (NDC) recently reported that by 2025, Taiwan will become a super-aged society with more than 20% of the population 65-years of age or older. As a result, the current administration has made elderly care a priority and allocated budgets mushrooming to nearly two-billion dollars each year. This combination of demographic trends and increasing budgets make Taiwan an attractive export market for American brands offering elderly care services.  

In 2017, the Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) officially announced its “Long-Term Care 2.0” policy, then later founded the Long-Term Care Development Fund to address the needs of this growing segment of the population. For the period 2017 to 2021, the reported government expenses for long-term care increased by 519%. Then in 2022, the budget for the Long-Term Care Development Fund grew to $1.8 billion.

To encourage more private-sector investment in the long-term care industry, the Taiwan authorities amended its regulations to provide tax deduction incentives for long-term care institutions, which effectively stimulated private investment into the industry. As a result, the number of long-term care institutions increased by 42%; however, it also created concerns about a lower quality of service for the elderly given some institutions’ tactics to undercut pricing to enter the market. In 2021, MOHW announced an initiative called the Residential Care Institutions Quality Improvement Plan to provide grants to institutions that comply with high-quality service standards. 

Foreign brands have started accessing the Taiwan elderly care market.  For example, the Genki Group of Japan entered the Taiwan elderly care industry in 2012, then became a publicly listed company on the local Stock Exchange in 2021. This demonstrates that the public is open-minded and welcomes foreign brands offering elderly care services. Furthermore, service providers from the United States with well-established business models could lead to healthy competition that would improve the quality of long-term care overall, thus creating a win-win situation for both the industry and the public in Taiwan.  

The combination of demographic trends in Taiwan, growing government resources, public policy incentivizes to catalyze private investment, and customer preferences, make Taiwan a top global export market for American brands offering elderly care services. For more information about this exciting opportunity, contact CS Taiwan Commercial Specialist Kelly Lee at Kelly.Lee@trade.gov.