Analysis Of Regional Differences In Chinese Farmer's Expending On Health Care

Ever since the beginning of reform and opening-up,Chinese rural economy has been developed greatly.However,the situation of medical and health services in rural areas should not be optimistic.The difficulty and high cost of getting medical treatment and poverty caused by illness in rural areas are becoming serious issues.Expending on health care reflects how much share farmers will spend income on medical treatment, reflects the level of farmers' health investment.On the condition of income slow growth and health care price persistent increasing,farmers are not able to avoid the risk of heavy illness by themselves,which lead to a lot of farmers don't go to hospital when suffering illness.Setting up a new type of rural cooperative medical service system and improving the medical and health condition in rural areas are of far-reaching significance in solving the three issues concerning agriculture, countryside and farmers,better promoting the development of rural economy and raising the health level of rural people as well as maintaining the social stability. First,this paper on the point of economics,especially on demand, makes qualitative analysis of the factors which impact on expending on health care,focuses on the influence of income,price,ageing population, provide a theoretical basis for the next text.Then,this paper comparative analyses the health care expenditure of urban and rural residents,estimate two models with OLS,Which is joined the virtual variables to reflect the influence of health care reform on rural and urban respective.The results are as follows:In the city,the growth rate of residents health care spending is faster than the growth rate of income,the impact of ageing population on heath care expenditure is not significant,but the impact of health care reform on heath care expenditure is notable;In the county,the growth rate of residents health care spending is slower than the growth rate of income,the impact of ageing population on heath care expenditure is significant,but the impact of health care reform on heath care expenditure is not notable.With panel data during 1993-2007,this paper applies a new technical, panel cointegration,to invest the long run equilibrium relationship of income,health care price,ageing population and expending on health care of farmer in low-income,middling-income,high-income regions. The results indicate that:There are great differences in the three regions, the increasing of health care price decrease the farmer's expending on health care in low-income area and middle-income area,on the contrary, the income and ageing population increase the expending;but in high-income area price elasticity of health care expenditure is positive, the increasing of health care price increase the farmer's expending on health care,and the income and ageing population also increase the expending.