Does basic medical insurance promote public health? Evidence from China family panel study

Fuchong Liao; Wenxiu Hu; Chun Zhang

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1269277

Does basic medical insurance promote public health? Evidence from China family panel study

Front Public Health. 2023 Dec 14:11:1269277. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1269277. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Fuchong Liao¹, Wenxiu Hu², Chun Zhang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Administration, Central South University, Changsha, China.
² Centre of Population and Development Policy Studies, Fudan University, Shanghai, Shanghai, China.
³ School of Business, Central South University, Changsha, China.

Abstract

Background: To promote common prosperity, China government has devoted much financial resources to the basic medical insurance system, it is of great significance to improve the health level of the insured groups to prevent them from returning to poverty due to illness. Whether or not the basic medical insurance can improve health status is an important policy issue after China has win the absolute poverty alleviation movement.

Methods: Based on the data of China Family Panel Studies this paper constructs a strong balanced panel data with two levels information, which including variables from family level and personal level. This paper uses the panel data fixed effect model and propensity score matching model to analysis.

Results: This paper finds that after controlling the family and personal confounding variables, the basic medical insurance has positive effect toward health status. With propensity score matching model, this paper finds that there is causality between basic medical insurance and public health.

Conclusion: Basic medical insurance has a significant health effect, that is, basic medical insurance has a significant positive impact on individual self-rated health. Participating in basic medical insurance can significantly improve the ability of families to face risk shocks, promote the accumulation of health capital in families, promote the diversification of livelihood strategies, and effectively prevent the occurrence of returning to poverty due to illness.

Keywords: common prosperity; health capital; livelihood capital; medical insurance; public health; sustainable livelihood.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China / epidemiology
Family Characteristics
Humans
Insurance*
Poverty
Public Health*

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 2023 Humanities and Social Sciences Research Youth Project, Ministry of Education of China(23YJC630105); 2019 Korea Foundation Chinese-Scholar Field Research Fellowship (KF Ref.1023000–002250). 2023 Youth Project of Ministry of Education (23B0016), Hunan Province.