A comparison of rural and urban healthcare consumption and health insurance
Abstract
Purpose – Since 1999, China has undergone reform of its healthcare system. City-based social health insurance (SHI) is the primary form of current health insurance, supplemented by various commercial health insurance programs. The rural new cooperative medical system (NCMS) was introduced in 1993 and extended to cover the whole of rural China in 2003. Design/methodology/approach – The paper developed a theoretical model for consumer demand of medical services and health insurance based on an expected utility framework with a two-stage decision under uncertainty. The model is then applied to current health insurance systems in China for urban citizens and rural residents separately. Least square and logistic regressions are employed. Findings – The major results are that although the factors driving the decisions on health insurance participation are basically the same for rural and urban citizens, the participation levels are quite different. The major difference is that urban SHI has higher coverage and urban citizens have higher income, resulting in a much larger urban medical expenditure. Practical implications – The empirical analysis reveals that health insurance programs have played an important role in the healthcare expenditure for urban residents, while the NCMS has not made a significant impact towards increasing the ability of rural residents to seek more medical services, based on data at 2004. Originality/value – This is the first paper employing a health production theory on China's new urban and rural healthcare programs.Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Emerald Group Publishing in its journal China Agricultural Economic Review.
Volume (Year): 2 (2010)
Issue (Month): 2 (May)
Pages: 212-227
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Related research
Keywords: China; Consumption; Health insurance; Health services; Rural areas; Urban areas;Find related papers by JEL classification:
- I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
- E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Capital; Investment; Capacity
- G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Lijian Qin & Suwen Pan & Chenggang Wang & Zhongyi Jiang, 2012. "Adverse selection in China's New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 4(1), pages 69-83, February.
- Rong Kong & Calum G. Turvey & Guangwen He & Jiujie Ma & Patrick Meagher, 2011. "Factors influencing Shaanxi and Gansu farmers' willingness to purchase weather insurance," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 3(4), pages 423-440, November.
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