Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics Researchers Focus on Public Health (Evaluating the long-term care insurance policy from medical expenses and health security equity perspective: evidence from China): Health and Medicine – Public Health

Hospital & Nursing Home Daily

2022 JAN 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Hospital & Nursing Home Daily -- Current study results on public health have been published. According to news reporting out of Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Since the national long-term care (LTCI) policy pilot in 2016 of China, the LTCI policy has had significant impact on the residents in the pilot area.”

Funders for this research include Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project; National Natural Science Fund of China; Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province.

Our news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics: “From the perspective of medical expenses and health security equity, this study selects tracking survey data from the CHARLS database in 2013, 2015, and 2018 and empirically investigates the effect of LTCI policy pilot by using differences-in-differences method (DID). Moreover, this study measures the economic distribution and health equity of the treated and untreated groups using the concentration and Theil indices. The results showed that group heterogeneity of medical expenses and health level of elderly in the treatment group were narrowing. Moreover, the policy results showed that the LTCI policy pilot significantly affects the outpatient, hospital expenses, and length of stay of elders. Residence registration, income level, and basic medical insurance play a significant regulatory role. Additionally, LTCI policy pilot significantly improved the overall health of the elderly.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The measurement results of inequality show that the policy increases the income of low-income people, lowers the inequality level of outpatient and inpatient reimbursement, and reduces the concentration index of ADL disability and serious diseases. However, the inequality of serious diseases is becoming higher. Based on this, this paper provides several suggestions on optimizing the pilot policy of LTCI.”

For more information on this research see: Evaluating the long-term care insurance policy from medical expenses and health security equity perspective: evidence from China. Archives of Public Health, 2022,80(1):1-15. (Archives of Public Health - http://archpublichealth.biomedcentral.com). The publisher for Archives of Public Health is BMC.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-021-00761-7.