Research On The Equity Of Health Financing And Its Impact On Residents’ Health

With the public’s increasing attention to health issues,the fairness of health financing has gradually become a research hotspot again.Universal health coverage requires residents to obtain high-quality basic medical care services.However,due to the unfairness of health financing,the poor and other disadvantaged groups around the world cannot obtain sufficient medical service resources.Based on the estimation from the World Health Organization in 2017,at least half of the7.3 billion people in the world currently do not have access to the basic medical and health services they need.Since the reforming and opening up in China,the government have actively promoted the reform of the health financing system.The total health expenditure has been continuously increased,and the health of Chinese residents has also been improved obviously.Chinese health financing is currently in a period of mixed form.Government financial health expenditure is the main source,combined with the financing mechanism from social medical insurance and personal self-payment.Due to the differences in health financing arrangements,economic development levels,and residents’ medical consumption habits in different regions,Chinese health financing has appeared to be unequal in the development process.And inequity in health financing limit the access of low-income residents to health services and hinder the achievement of universal health goals.Therefore,improving the health financing structure and enhancing the equity of health financing are of great importance to the realization of comprehensive health.With the aim to explore the equity of health financing and the impact of health financing from different channels on the health status of residents in China,this study intends to use macro data from the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Public Health Statistical Yearbook.And employ the concentration index and the Theil index to explore the equality of health financing in different channels,and its inequity is broken down according to the four regions of China.Secondly,with the micro data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS),we construct the ordered probability model based on the Grossman health demand theory model.The health score calculated by SF-6D is the main explained variable,and the health expenditures from different financing channels are explanatory variables.The empirical results found that:(1)Chinese total health financing is increasing with time,and the financing structure is continuously optimized;(2)There are inequalities in different health financing channels,and regional differences are the main reason for inequity in health financing;(3)Government health expenditure and social health expenditure have significant positive influence on the health status of Chinese residents;(4)Personal health expenditure has a significant reverse relationship with the health status of residents;(5)The health status of residents are significantly related to their age,education level,living habits,living environment,etc.According to the above research conclusions,this research puts forward several policy recommendations to optimize the health financing structure,including(1)Expand the scale of health financing and improve the accessibility of residents’ health services;(2)Deploy health financing and reduce the inconsistency of health financing rationally.(3)Optimize the health financing investment of different channels to minimize paying for health services out-of-pocket.Including expanding the proportion of government health expenditures;enriching social health financing forms and encouraging the development of commercial health care insurance;alleviating the individual health care burden of residents,Increase multi-channel healthy financing management and risk resistance.(4)Improve residents’ income and education level,promote healthy lifestyles,and build a green living environment.