Huazhong University of Science and Technology Reports Findings in Public Health (Can supplementary private health insurance further supplement health): Health and Medicine – Public Health

2022 OCT 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Health and Medicine - Public Health is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating from Wuhan, People’s Republic of China, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “China advocates a health insurance system with social health insurance (SHI) as the main body and private health insurance (PHI) as the supplement. The study of PHI’s complementary role in health is conducive to providing evidence for PHI’s policy expansion and encouraging the public to participate in PHI, which is insufficient in China.”

Financial support for this research came from National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, “We used the three-wave balanced panel data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS). Taking the ownership of supplementary PHI as the independent variable and EQ-5D index scores as the dependent variable, the panel instrumental variable (IV) method was used to analyze the impact of participation in PHI on health. We also assessed the heterogeneity of the health effects of PHI between chronic and non-chronic disease groups and between low- and high-income groups. The coverage rate of PHI at baseline was 10.53%. The regression results showed that participating in PHI on the basis of SHI could result in an additional 8.21% health gain (< 0.001). At the same time, PHI had greater health gain for chronic disease population than for healthy population (9.25 vs. 6.24%, < 0.001), and greater health gain for high-income population than for low-income population (8.32 vs. 5.31%, < 0.001). Participating in supplementary PHI can effectively enhance the health status of the insured, and has a more significant effect on patients with chronic diseases.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The development of PHI should be further supported, while the health inequality in different income groups should be paid attention to.”

For more information on this research see: Can supplementary private health insurance further supplement health. Frontiers in Public Health, 2022;10:961019. Frontiers in Public Health can be contacted at: Frontiers Media Sa, Avenue Du Tribunal Federal 34, Lausanne, Ch-1015, Switzerland.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Dandan Guo, School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China. Additional authors for this research include Xinlin Chen, Huawei Tan, Yunfan Zhang, Yanchen Liu, Xinlan Chen and Yingchun Chen.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.961019. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Publisher contact information for the journal Frontiers in Public Health is: Frontiers Media Sa, Avenue Du Tribunal Federal 34, Lausanne, Ch-1015, Switzerland.

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