Data from Renmin University of China Advance Knowledge in Mental Health Diseases and Conditions (Health insurance and subjective well-being: evidence from integrating medical insurance across urban and rural areas in China): Mental Health Diseases and Conditions

2024 MAY 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators discuss new findings in mental health diseases and conditions. According to news reporting from Beijing, People’s Republic of China, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Health insurance coverage and the risk protection it provides may improve enrollees’ subjective well-being (SWB), as demonstrated, e.g. by Oregon Medicaid’s randomized expansion significantly improving enrollees’ mental health and happiness.”

Financial supporters for this research include The National Social Science Fund of China.

Our news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Renmin University of China: “Yet little evidence from low- and middle-income countries documents the link between insurance coverage and SWB. We analyse individual-level data on a large natural experiment in China: the integration of the rural and urban resident health insurance programmes. This reform, expanded nationally since 2016, is recognized as a vital step towards attaining the goal of providing affordable and equitable basic healthcare in China, because integration raises the level of healthcare coverage for rural residents to that enjoyed by their urban counterparts. This study is the first to investigate the impact of urban-rural health insurance integration on the SWB of the Chinese population. Analysing 2011-18 data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in a difference-in-difference framework with variation in the treatment timing, we find that the integration policy significantly improved the life satisfaction of rural residents, especially among low-income and elderly individuals.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The positive impact of the integration on SWB appears to stem from the improvement of rural residents’ mental health (decrease in depressive symptoms) and associated increases in some health behaviours, as well as a mild increase in outpatient care utilization and financial risk protection. There was no discernible impact of the integration on SWB among urban residents, suggesting that the reform reduced inequality in healthcare access and health outcomes for poorer rural residents without negative spillovers on their urban counterparts.”

For more information on this research see: Health insurance and subjective well-being: evidence from integrating medical insurance across urban and rural areas in China. Health Policy and Planning, 2024. The publisher for Health Policy and Planning is Oxford University Press (OUP).

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czae031.

Our news journalists report that more information may be obtained by contacting Qin Zhou, School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China, No. 59, Zhongguancun Street, 323# Qiushi Building, Haidian, Beijing 100872, People’s Republic of China. Additional authors for this research include Karen Eggleston, Gordon G Liu.

ORCID is an identifier for authors and includes bibliographic information. The following is ORCID information for the authors of this research: Qin Zhou (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6354-2219), Karen Eggleston (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8122-7722). Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.