The Influence Of Intergenerational Support On The Utilization Of Medical Services For The Elderly In Rural Areas

At present,the aging of the population has become an extremely serious social problem in China,which has seriously affected the development of China’s society and economy.Compared with urban areas,a large number of young people in rural areas go out to work,and the remaining population is mostly middle-aged and elderly.The aging population of the region is even more severe.In this context,the health status of the elderly and the utilization rate of medical services system are increasingly attracting social attention.However,according to the survey data of the Fifth National Health Service Survey and Analysis Report,some elderly people in rural areas have negative willingness to be treated due to economic concerns,which is extremely harmful to their health.How to improve the ability of the elderly in rural areas to pay for medical expenses and change their negative willingness to be treated has become a realistic problem to be solved.In this context,this paper uses the Chinese Health and Pension Tracking Survey Data(CHARLS)of Peking University National Development Research Institute to study the status of medical service utilization in the rural areas of China over 60 years old by constructing simultaneous equations.This paper focuses on the different effects of different forms of intergenerational support on the medical services choice of elderly parents in rural areas.Also this paper will find out whether there is a difference in the influence of intergenerational support in different regions on the utilization of medical services for the elderly.Targeted policy recommendations for changing the negative treatment of older people in rural areas will be made at the end.From the aspect of research content,the existing researches of medical service utilization have less perspectives on intergenerational support and mainly focus on exploring the health effects of intergenerational support on the elderly.The different forms and areas of intergenerational support will be explored in this paper,which will further enrich the research results in related fields.From the perspective of research methods,this paper uses the simultaneous equations model to make up for the neglect of the two-way causal relationship between the intergenerational support and the utilization of medical services in the existing literature,and to make the empirical results more rigorous.Through empirical analysis,the paper mainly finds the following conclusions:(1)Children’s financial support can significantly promote the timely use of medical services in the elderly in rural areas,but emotional support has no significant relationship with elderly parents’ use of medical services;(2)education level and medical insurance can significantly promote the active treatment of sick parents;(3)when elderly parents in rural areas need to take care of underage grandchildren,they are more likely to have negative willingness for treatment;(4)After dividing the sample into two groups by areas,the conclusion(1)is only applicable to the central and western regions,while in the eastern region providing intergenerational economic support has no significant impact on elderly parents’ willingness to be treated.Finally,the paper further summarizes the analysis results of intergenerational support on the willingness to use medical services for the elderly in rural areas,proposes targeted policies to improve the negative willingness for treatment of the elderly in rural areas and improve the utilization of medical services,explains the shortcomings of this research,and looks forward to some possible future research directions on intergenerational support.