Research On The Impact Of Medical Insurance On Household Consumption And Financial Asset Allocation

We have been over-relied on the investment and l exports trade to boost China’s economy development for over 40 years since the reform and opening-up,which is now facing more and more practical challenges,pulling effect gradually collapsed,and resulting in slow economic growth.Economic growth should rely on domestic demand,comply with the law of economic development,so promoting consumption will be an important strategic choice in the new normal period.In recent years,the rapid development of China’s economy has led to the rapid increase of China’s national income level,followed by the great improvement of national consumption capacity.The importance of consumption to China’s economic development has become a "ballast stone" to the stabilization of economy,and despite the impact of covid-19 pneumonia outbreak in 2020～2021,the contribution rate of final consumption expenditure to GDP growth reached 54.3% and 65.4% respectively,consumption has become the most important driving force for steady economic growth.However,due to some uncertainties such as housing,education,health care and social security,the consumption demand of our residents has not been significantly released,and the average contribution of final consumption expenditure to economic growth is around 60% in 2013-2019.In fact,the consumption rate of developed countries is generally maintained at more than 80%,thus there is still much room for China to improve the basic role of consumption.Meanwhile,with the continuous improvement of residents’ income level,the products in the financial market are more diversified,and the residents’ investment concept has changed,and the income is used more for asset allocation,thus affecting the residents’ consumption decisions.The increase in uncertainty resulting from changes in income and spending will lead to more savings,which is preventive savings.Among the many factors affecting consumption and financial asset allocation,the uncertainty of medical expenses becomes an important factor restricting the allocation of household consumption and financial assets.The implementation of health care or health insurance can greatly reduce the uncertainty of medical expenditure.There have been several reports of medical or health insurance promoting investment in consumer and risky financial assets at home and abroad by reducing uncertainty about medical expenditures.But most of these reported studies are limited to single-level medical or health insurance.It is generally believed that medical or health insurance can promote household consumption and risky financial asset allocation.Compared with basic medical insurance,commercial health insurance plays a more significant role in promoting residents’ consumption and allocating risk financial assets.And this role has heterogeneity,in different ages,between urban and rural areas,different income.At present,a multi-level medical security system framework with basic medical insurance as the main body,medical help as the foundation,supplementary medical insurance,commercial health insurance,charitable donation,medical mutual assistance and other common development has been basically formed in China.Multiple medical insurance,covering basic medical insurance,supplementary medical insurance and commercial health insurance,as an important part of multi-level medical insurance,what impact does it have on China’s household consumption and financial asset allocation? How much can it play? Can the more levels of medical insurance promote household consumption and allocation of risky financial assets? Based on this,exploring and studying the impact of multiple medical insurance on Chinese residents’ household consumption and financial asset allocation can clarify the influencing factors of household consumption and asset allocation,enrich the preventive savings theory,and provide reference for the proposal and adjustment of stimulus policies to stimulate consumption,expand domestic demand and optimize asset allocation.And provide decision-making basis for further improving the multi-level medical insurance system,and ultimately help to improve the overall medical security level of Chinese residents.From the perspective of precautionary savings and risk attitude,this paper uses China’s financial micro survey data to verify the impact of multiple medical insurance on household consumption and financial asset allocation,so as to provide a basis for further reform and improvement of multi-level medical insurance system.Specifically,this paper includes the following contents: First,we study on study the impact of the improvement of the level of basic medical insurance,supplementary medical insurance(with or without)and commercial health insurance(with or without)on household consumption and the allocation of risky financial assets.In accordance with the relevant data of China Statistical Yearbook,the medical security or treatment level of basic medical insurance for urban employees is significantly higher than that of basic medical insurance for urban and rural residents.Here,the participation of family heads in basic medical insurance for urban employees is considered to be an improvement in the level of basic medical insurance compared with the participation of family heads in basic medical insurance for urban and rural residents.Consumption is divided into total consumption and consumption structure,that is,the proportion of development enjoyment consumption;Financial asset allocation includes whether risk financial assets are held and the depth of holding(proportion of risk financial assets).Considering the possible heterogeneity,the heterogeneity of households is analyzed according to urban and rural areas,regions,age of head of household or(investment risk attitude).Finally,taking precautionary savings as the transmission path,explore the intermediary effect of medical insurance on Residents’ family economy,and take health status and investment risk attitude as regulatory variables to study the mediating effect model with regulation.Second,we study the impact of multiple medical insurance on household consumption and asset allocation,grouping according to the types of medical insurance participated by household heads,based on the participation of household heads in basic medical insurance.The heterogeneity of households was also analyzed according to urban and rural areas,regions,age of head of household or(risk attitude).Taking precautionary savings as the transmission path and health status and investment risk attitude as the regulating variables,this paper explores the intermediary effect and regulated intermediary effect of multiple medical insurance relative to basic medical insurance group,commercial health insurance group relative to supplementary medical insurance group and multiple medical insurance group relative to commercial health insurance group on household consumption and financial asset allocation.The results show that,in general,the improvement of basic medical insurance,commercial health insurance and multiple medical insurance have a significant positive impact on household consumption and asset allocation.In addition to medical insurance,endowment insurance for urban employees,commercial life insurance or endowment insurance,higher education and family income can also have a significant positive impact on household consumption and financial asset allocation.The impact of commercial health insurance on household consumption and asset allocation is significantly higher than that of supplementary medical insurance.In most cases,there was no difference between the multiple medical insurance group and the commercial health insurance group at the level of 5%.In terms of the above functions,there are differences in medical insurance between urban and rural areas,regions and age structure.Generally,the above impact of medical insurance on urban families,families in the eastern region and families aged 36-50 is similar to that on the whole population.However,there are some differences in the above effects on rural families,families in the western region and families aged 16-35 and on the overall population.Medical insurance can promote the total consumption of households.However,it plays a weak role in optimizing the consumption structure and increasing the proportion of risky financial assets.The reason may be that the household consumption structure and the proportion of risky financial assets are more vulnerable to factors such as family income,wealth accumulation level and education level.Among these groups,family income is low,wealth accumulation is low and education culture is not high.The improvement of household consumption by medical insurance mainly depends on the direct effect of reducing the actual out of pocket medical expenses,while the impact mechanism on the allocation of financial assets mainly depends on the indirect effect of reducing preventive savings.The health status and risk attitude of household heads play a regulatory role in the mechanism of the impact of medical insurance on consumption and financial asset allocation,respectively.To sum up,from the perspective of family,this paper analyzes the impact of supplementary medical insurance,commercial health insurance and multiple medical insurance on household consumption and asset allocation,which is conducive to enriching the precautionary savings theory and providing an effective path to solve the problems of high savings,low consumption and low participation rate in the financial market,It provides reference and empirical data support for the reform of China’s multi-level medical security system,provides decision-making basis for further improving the multi-level medical insurance system,helps to improve the overall medical security level of Chinese residents,and finally contributes to the medical insurance policy power to achieve common prosperity.