In just 19 years, Malaysia will be an aged nation, with 14 per cent of its population becoming over 65. Policymakers must use the time to change the way they think about how elderly care is funded and delivered.
Start with funding. Today, policymakers view such social care as a cost, meaning, to be funded by tax dollars. This has left a gaping hole in the coffers of governments around the world. Even the treasuries of rich nations have big holes in them.
This must change for two reasons. One, not all Malaysians who are required to pay taxes, pay them.
We live in a world where the clever avoid taxes, which is legal, and the not-so-clever evade them.
Two, such a view puts a tremendous burden on the rest of the society to fund such social care.
The elderly could pay for their later years, if a pay-as-you-age system is implemented, as some countries have done. The paths to this end, though, are many.
One is to look east to the Japanese way. There, once a Japanese citizen hits 40, long-term insurance becomes mandatory. But still, premiums don't pay for 100 per cent of the social care bill.
Half the tab is picked up by tax revenues, a 50 per cent headache for the Tokyo treasury, but a headache nevertheless.
Or Malaysia can look to Singapore. There, mandatory long-term care insurance — CareShield Life as it is called — kicks in 10 years earlier at age 30.
And lasts until they retire, according to the city-state's Health Ministry website. There, too, some amount of subsidies become necessary, especially for those who earn low wages.
Looking west, too, yields myriad routes to long-term elderly care. The point is for our policymakers to craft one that suits Malaysia the best.
But funding isn't the only area in which social care in Malaysia needs a rethink. How it is delivered, too, needs a new way of seeing, a point addressed by Camilla Cavendish, a social care expert, and two others in a working paper published by Harvard's Kennedy School.
While the paper's recommendation is directed to Britain's policymakers, we think ours, too, can learn a thing or two on how to make the old age of Malaysians better.
Quite rightly, the three focus on promoting the independence of the over 65s. It is not uncommon for over 65s to be bedridden after a fall or a surgery.
Robust rehabilitation — turbo-charged rehabilitation is their term — will keep the over 65s independent for longer. Unnecessary admissions or delayed discharge, as in Britain, do keep our public hospitals clogged.
This new way of seeing the health and care of the over 65s isn't just meant for policymakers, though, for sure, they must lead it.
Our hospitals need to hire and train more staff in areas relevant to elderly care. Consider geriatricians, specialists who care for the elderly.
For a country with 34 million people, there were only an estimated 40 geriatricians in 2018. Six years on, there are only an estimated 100 of them.
The story isn't too different for occupational therapists, physiotherapists and other medical staff who could make old age better for the elderly. We mustn't forget that 2043 isn't too far away.