The Risks and Dynamics of Health Care Expenditures in Urban China: An Illustration in Kunshan City

Guan Gong (), Hongmei Wang () and Lingli Xu ()
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Guan Gong: School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai 200433, China
Hongmei Wang: College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198-4350, USA
Lingli Xu: School of Economics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China

Frontiers of Economics in China-Selected Publications from Chinese Universities, 2014, vol. 9, issue 4, 634-660

Abstract: This paper examines the individual financial risk of health care expenditures over time in urban China, using longitudinal health expenditure data from 2005 to 2007 in Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province, China. We find that the stochastic process of log total health care expenditures is well represented by the sum of an AR(3) process and a white noise process. Simulating this model, we find that the urban health insurance system protects enrollees from the risk of catastrophic health care expenditures by bearing the majority of the health care expenditures. However, out-of-pocket health care expenditures represents a considerable risk to an individual¡¯s financial status.

Keywords: out-of-pocket expenditures; financial risk; urban health insurance system; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H75 I11 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fec:journl:v:9:y:2014:i:4:p:634-660

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