Renmin University of China Reports Findings in Health Planning and Management (Assessing the Long-Term Effects of Basic Medical Insurance on Catastrophic Health Spending in China): Health and Medicine – Health Planning and Management

2022 MAR 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Health and Medicine - Health Planning and Management is the subject of a report. According to news reporting from Beijing, People’s Republic of China, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Many developing countries have implemented social health insurance programs to protect their citizens against the financial risks of seeking healthcare. While many studies have explored how individual insurance enrollments affect catastrophic health spending (CHS) in the short term, there is a lack of evidence on the long-term macro-level effects of social health insurance on CHS in low- and middle-income countries.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the Renmin University of China, “This study examines the long-term effects of Basic Medical Insurance (BMI) on individual CHS in China, a middle-income country that has witnessed one of the highest worldwide increases in CHS rates despite its remarkable achievement of universal health insurance coverage. Specifically, we used existing longitudinal data from 1989 to 2015, therein assessing BMI policy effects by constructing two macro-level indicators, including the year of BMI presence at the prefectural level and number of years relative to BMI introduction. We employed a three-level difference-in-differences approach for the estimation. There were two main findings. First, BMI policy did not significantly reduce the probability of incurring CHS for BMI enrollees over time. Years after BMI was introduced, the policy even predicted a significant increase in the probability of incurring CHS for individuals who shifted their enrollments from traditional insurance to BMI. Second, BMI policy had spillover effects on the increase in the probability of incurring CHS for non-BMI individuals a few years after its inception. We believe there are three possible explanations for these findings: (1) shrinking BMI service coverage compared to pre-existing government-funded insurance schemes, (2) a profit-driven hospital reform that induces the overuse of expensive medicines and diagnostic tests, and (3) the absence of strategic purchasing among local BMI agencies.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “We also discuss how relevant policy interventions may alleviate insurance-driven financial risks.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Assessing the Long-Term Effects of Basic Medical Insurance on Catastrophic Health Spending in China. Health Policy and Planning, 2022. Health Policy and Planning can be contacted at: Oxford Univ Press, Great Clarendon St, Oxford OX2 6DP, England. (Oxford University Press - http://www.oup.com/; Health Policy and Planning - heapol.oxfordjournals.org)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Wenting Liu, Dept. of Social Security, School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing, People’s Republic of China. Additional authors for this research include Kai Liu, Richard Frank and Chunling Lu.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czac020. 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 Health Policy and Planning is: Oxford Univ Press, Great Clarendon St, Oxford OX2 6DP, England.

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