National Income,Health Inequality And Health Industry Development

Health is an indispensable factor for the development of human beings,and also a basic condition for economic and social development.In 2016,the promulgation of the "Healthy China 2030 Outline" means that the goal of improving people’s health has been put on the agenda.In 2017,the 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China further explicitly proposed the implementation of the "Healthy China" strategy,which raises the goal of achieving universal health to the level of national strategy.With the rapid development of economy in China,health status of people has been improved;however,health inequality among different income groups exists and remains prominent.In addition,the continuous increase in income leads to the expansion of residents’ health needs,and the existence of health inequality also makes different income groups have different health needs,which will inevitably promote the development of China’s health industry.Based on the background,the study aims to solve two issues: firstly,to analyze the internal mechanisms and the causes of health inequalities in China and provide evidence for the formulation of health policy;secondly,to explore how to develop China’s health industry from the perspective of health needs and health inequality.There is significant practical and theoretical significance of this study.Based on the theory of health human capital,health demand theory,industry development theory and Keynes’ s absolute income consumption theory,the dissertation raises the research hypotheses that income affects health and the development of health industry is affected by health needs;and tests the research hypotheses by empirically analyzing the relationship between income and health,and relationship between health needs and the development of health industry.Finally,based on the results,the dissertation proposes suggestions to reduce the health inequalities in China,and to promote the development of China’s health industry in the future.The main contributions and innovations of the study are reflected in the following aspects.Firstly,the dissertation analyzes the health status of people and the development of health industry in China,presents the factors affecting national health,health inequality and the development of health industry in China,shows the advantages of the development of China’s health industry,and reveals the basic law of the development of health industry.The dissertation concludes that health status of people has been greatly improved,however,there still exist health inequalities in many aspects in China.In addition,there are many advantages such as policy support,mature market and good cultural foundation for the development of health industry in China.Secondly,the relationship between national income and health and its impact mechanism are clarified.The dissertation empirically analyzes the causal relationship between national income and health based on a simultaneous equation model;then further explores the intermediate mechanisms through which income impacts health by using a modified model;and focuses on analyzing the differences in the health status of different income groups.The results show that there is a two-way causal relationship between income and health.On the one hand,income affects health directly;on the other hand,income influences health through intermediate mechanisms such as lifestyle,psychological factors and access to medical and health resource.The average health status of high-income groups is better than that of the low-income groups,which means that there is health inequality which is in favor of rich people in China.Thirdly,the degree of health inequality and the causes of health inequality have been explored.The dissertation uses the concentration index to measure the degree of health inequality in China,and uses the recentered influence function(RIF)regression model to analyze the causes of health inequality for the first time.The results show that there is health inequality that is in favor of the rich in China,and health inequality is increasing over time.Income and access to the health care services are the two main factors affecting health inequality.Therefore,the dissertation argues that not only the improvement of income,but also increasing the accessibility of health services is a good measure to reduce health inequality.Finally,the dissertation analyzes how the health needs caused by the increase in income impact the development of health industry,and for the first time compares the different health needs of different income groups,in order to guide the development of China’s health industry.This dissertation defines health needs from two perspectives: the general definition of needs in economics and the definition of health needs in health economics.On the one hand,the study empirically analyzes the impact of health needs on the development of health industry through time series models;on the other hand,the results of the study guides the development of health industries from the perspective of health inequalities.The results show that the increase in health needs not only promotes the expansion of the scale of health industry,but also promotes the upgrading of health industry’s technical structure,and also improves the performance of health industry organizations.The development of the health industry must meet the different needs of low-income groups and high-income groups,and focuses on the development of high-end medical services and other high-end health industries while ensuring the provision of basic medical services.