IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joecag/v31y2025ics2212828x2500026x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Direct and spillover effects of long-term care insurance on Chinese elderly frailty

Author

Listed:
  • Lin, Lin
  • He, Min
  • Nie, Peng

Abstract

Frailty has become a pressing public health concern within the elderly population. However, the extent to which long-term care insurance (LTCI) coverage can alleviate frailty among elderly beneficiaries is still insufficiently explored. Utilizing data from the 2011–2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) and the city-by-city rollout of the LTCI program, this study examines the impact of China’s LTCI policy on the frailty of older beneficiaries and their spouses. Our findings reveal a statistically significant reduction in frailty among older beneficiaries three to five years after LTCI implementation. Moreover, these positive effects extend to spouses, as indicated by a decreased frailty index among them. Notably, the benefits are more pronounced among beneficiaries and spouses who are male, reside in rural areas, and have lower levels of education and consumption. The reduction in frailty is primarily attributed to enhanced subjective well-being and reduced financial strain among beneficiaries, rather than increased utilization of long-term care services.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin, Lin & He, Min & Nie, Peng, 2025. "Direct and spillover effects of long-term care insurance on Chinese elderly frailty," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joecag:v:31:y:2025:i:c:s2212828x2500026x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100571
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212828X2500026X
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100571?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Long-term care insurance; Frailty; Health outcome; Subjective well-being; Long-term care; Spillover effect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • P30 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joecag:v:31:y:2025:i:c:s2212828x2500026x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-journal-of-the-economics-of-ageing .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.