Can Commercial Medical Insurance Mitigate The Impact Of Health Shocks On Household Consumption?

Health is the foundation of human survival and social development,and health risk is one of the most common risks facing families.Personal health is related to the well-being of the family,and the health of 1.4 billion people determines the future of the country.In recent years,with economic development and social progress,the level of medical care is constantly improving,the state’s investment in medical and health services is also increasing year by year,but China’s residents are still suffering from more serious health shocks.As an indispensable part of the social security system,the medical security system plays an important role in alleviating the health impact of residents and improving the well-being of life.Although China’s basic medical insurance system has made remarkable progress after more than 40 years of development,the government and families still face problems such as unclear positioning,unclear rights and responsibilities and not obvious effects in the basic medical insurance system.In order to enhance the ability of residents to withstand health shocks and improve their happiness,we must increase social security and accelerate the development of commercial medical insurance.Using the data of China Family Panel Studies(CFPS),this paper constructs the three-stage panel data(2012,2014 and 2016),uses fixed effects regression model to carry out empirical research,and analyzes the regression of the full-sample and sub-samples under different health shocks respectively,comprehensively and systematically studies the impact of health shocks on Chinese household consumption,and on this basis examines whether commercial medical insurance has played a role in smooth household consumption and how different the effect sits on different family protection.This paper is divided into five parts:the first part mainly expounds the research background and significance of this paper,the research content and methods,and points out the innovation points and shortcomings of this paper.The second part combs the domestic and foreign documents.The third part introduces the theoretical model,regression model,data source,definition and selection of related variables.The fourth part carries on the regression research and analysis.The fifth part gives the conclusion sand and policy suggestions of this paper.The study found that the health shock will significantly affect the total household consumption and household health care consumption,so that the total household consumption and health care consumption increased.Households that have been hit by severe health shocks are more likely to spend more on overall health care than those that have been hit by general health.General health shocks will lead to a significant increase in health-care spending for low-income households,resulting in a significant reduction in health-care spending for middle-and high-income households.For the full-sample households,rural households,and low-income households,severe health shocks have significantly reduced household non-healthcare consumption,for every additional unit of severe health shocks,per capita non-health-care consumption decreased by 2.8%,and commercial health insurance played a role in smooth consumption.but for urban households and middle-and-high-income households,because of the safeguards they can take,a severe health shock would not crowd out other consumption of health-care spending,but would increase non-health-care consumption in order to rehabilitate members as soon as possible.In this case,the role of commercial health insurance is not reflected in the smooth household consumption,but directly in the promotion of household non-health care consumption expenditureIn an in-depth study of the relationship between health shocks,commercial health insurance and household consumption,we conclude with some policy recommendations:First,the state should increase the promotion of commercial medical insurance,deepen social and commercial cooperation from the policy level,clear the basic medical insurance "wide coverage" and commercial medical insurance "high-level" positioning,comprehensively coordinate the development of commercial health insurance and social insurance,introduce relevant policies and regulations and formulate relevant tax incentives to promote the development of commercial health insurance.Secondly,insurance companies should focus on the heterogeneity of commercial medical insurance on the health effects of different groups of people,design more humane insurance to meet the different groups of different people’s insurance needs,give full play to the flexibility of commercial insurance products and personalized characteristics.Thirdly,the government should establish a sound insurance market and credit market,play an active role in finance,set up more informal insurance projects,and encourage households to share risks through various channels Finally,it is necessary for the government to increase investment in education and training,enhance the stock of human capital,enhance the ability of multi-industry employment,and finally enhance the ability of residents to smooth income fluctuations.