Risk Characteristics of Catastrophic Health Expenditure in Multidimensional Borderline Poor Households in China

Xiaocang Xu; Xiuquan Huang

doi:10.2147/RMHP.S382812

Risk Characteristics of Catastrophic Health Expenditure in Multidimensional Borderline Poor Households in China

Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2023 Jan 5:16:15-29. doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S382812. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xiaocang Xu¹, Xiuquan Huang²

Affiliations

¹ School of Economics and Management, Huzhou University, Huzhou, 313000, People's Republic of China.
² Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao, 999078, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Background: Ending poverty and realizing common prosperity are the essential requirements for the localization of Marxism in China. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the post-poverty era further aggravates the risk of catastrophic health expenditure for borderline poor households and increases the uncertainty of returning to poverty due to illness, potentially undermining decades of hard-won efforts to eradicate poverty in China.

Methods: Based on the latest data released by China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS) database, this paper uses the Logit model to empirically explore the risk characteristics of catastrophic health expenditure of multidimensional borderline poor households based on identifying multidimensional borderline poor households.

Results: The results show that factors such as family income level, child support, and medical insurance have different impacts on catastrophic health expenditure, and the risk of catastrophic health expenditure of multidimensional borderline poor households is much higher than that of non- multidimensional borderline poor households, and there is a certain difference between urban and rural areas.

Discussion: The government should strengthen and improve the social security system and health service system, such as medical insurance, and more resources should be allocated to multidimensional borderline poor households, especially in rural areas.

Keywords: catastrophic health expenditure; common prosperity; insurance system; multidimensional borderline poor households; urban-rural differences.

Grants and funding

This paper is a phased achievement of The National Social Science Fund of China: Research on the blocking mechanism of the Borderline poor families returning to poverty due to illness, No: 20BJY057.