The Impact Of The Rise Of For-profit Hospitals For Medical Expenses

In the current times, the developments of the for-profit medical institutions are so rapidly and impressive, but still with a lot of obstacles and debates. Many people are concerning about the effects that whether the fast developments will have a big influence to the medical expenditures in the health care markets, and the government is wondering the policy implications of for-profits institutions on the China's health care reform? To answer these questions, thanks to the help of econometric tools, the author analyzed the relationship of market share of for-profit institutions and the medical expenditures under the model of fixed effects.The first part of this thesis will summarize the current typical health care systems based on the theoretical analysis and empirical study, including both health care insurance coverage rate, management system, but also the control for health expenditures, the payment mechanisms in order to compare the different efficiency under different regimes. Due to the differences in the developments in economics and culture, it comes out many different health care systems whose efficiencies are.In the second part, the author will summarize based on existing literature and make the dialectical analysis of the changing process of Chinese health care system, pointing out the fundamental problems of health care system reform from both dimensions of medical supplies and medical demands.In the third part the author empirically investigates the effect of for-profit institutions on the medical expenditures using provincial panel data from year 2003 to year 2009. The health care delivery system in China, which is dominated by state hospitals, is now being increasingly challenged by public concerns:The health care expenditures are too expensive and too inaccessible. As the penetration of for-profit hospitals has gradually increased, there is a growing need for policy research to assess their impact on medical spending from the patient perspective. This part of the paper examines the impact of the penetration of for-profit hospitals on average medical expenditures per capita for both outpatient and inpatient services in public general hospitals. Based on fixed-effect model estimates, the study shows that the penetration of for-profit hospitals has lowered the average medical expenditures for both inpatient and outpatient services across different regions. With the data collected from Health Year book, this study finds no evidence that private for-profit institutions drive up average medical expenditures while serving their profit-maximization objectives. Instead, they help increase the market supply of health care, and increase the competition of market supply for health care, which leads to better satisfy the increasing demand...