Did the distribution of health insurance in China continue to grow less equitable in the nineties? Results from a longitudinal survey
John Akin,
William Dow and
Peter M. Lance
Social Science & Medicine, 2004, vol. 58, issue 2, 293-304
Abstract:
This paper examines changes in the distribution of health insurance across socioeconomic groups in China over the 1989-1997 period. The analysis is based on the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), a unique micro-level longitudinal survey of households in eight Chinese provinces. Findings indicate that while aggregate insurance coverage rates in the sample changed little over this period, certain previously noted differences in coverage rates across socioeconomic groups narrowed significantly. These findings bring into question the presumption that continued market-oriented reform would lead to increased differences in coverage across those groups. The results, in fact, suggest exactly the opposite, that as the market oriented changes have occurred important disparities in health insurance coverage have been reduced. If these reductions are occurring there are important implications for policy. The groups normally targeted for equity reasons seem to be making progress over time but continued improvements are needed for these groups to reach the levels of coverage enjoyed by more fortunate subgroups.
Keywords: China; Health; Health; insurance; Equity; Socioeconomic; status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(03)00207-7
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:58:y:2004:i:2:p:293-304
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01
Access Statistics for this article
Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian
More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().