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Does Health Insurance Decrease Health Expenditure Risk in Developing Countries? The Case of China

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Listed:
  • Juergen Jung

    (Department of Economics, Towson University)

  • Jialu Liu

    (Department of Economics, Allegheny College)

Abstract

We make use of panel data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey between 1991 and 2006 to investigate whether health insurance increases out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenditure risk. We find that health insurance increases the probability of catastrophic OOP health expenditures using a series of Probit models. We then use two-part as well as sample selection models to account for selection on unobservable variables and find that although the probability of positive OOP health expenditures increases with the availability of health insurance, the actual level of OOP health expenditures decreases. More specifically, we find that for a per- son with positive OOP health expenditures, having health insurance reduces the level of OOP expenses by 12.56 percent while controlling for selection effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Juergen Jung & Jialu Liu, 2011. "Does Health Insurance Decrease Health Expenditure Risk in Developing Countries? The Case of China," Working Papers 2011-04, Towson University, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2014.
    • Handle: RePEc:tow:wpaper:2011-04
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    Cited by:

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    2. Kane, Sumit & Joshi, Madhura & Mahal, Ajay & McPake, Barbara, 2023. "How social norms and values shape household healthcare expenditures and resource allocation: Insights from India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    3. Macinko, James & Seixas, Brayan V. & de Oliveira, Cesar & Lima-Costa, Maria Fernanda, 2022. "Private health insurance, healthcare spending and utilization among older adults: Results from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    4. Beyene, Abebe D. & Jeuland, Marc & Sebsibie, Samuel & Hassen, Sied & Mekonnen, Alemu & Meles, Tensay H. & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K. & Klug, Thomas, 2022. "Pre-paid meters and household electricity use behaviors: Evidence from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    health insurance; exposure to health risk; health care in China; out-of-pocket health expenditure in China; two-part model; bivariate sample selection model; Heckman two- step estimator; China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS).;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C34 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Truncated and Censored Models; Switching Regression Models

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