Nip it in the bud: the impact of China’s large-scale free physical examination program on health care expenditures for elderly people

Qingshan Ma, Yuanmeng Zhang, Feng Hu (), Haiyan Zhou and Hao Hu
Additional contact information
Qingshan Ma: Xiamen University
Yuanmeng Zhang: Tsinghua University
Feng Hu: Shanghai University of International Business and Economics
Haiyan Zhou: Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology
Hao Hu: Shanghai University

Palgrave Communications, 2025, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract In this study, we take China’s large-scale free physical examination program for people aged 65 and above as an entry point and use data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) between 2011 and 2018 to construct a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) model to examine whether the free physical examination program affected elderly individuals’ health care expenditures. We find that the program increased the probability of attending a physical examination by 4.3%, reduced overall medical expenditures by 28.4%, and reduced hospitalization costs by 22.1% for persons over 65 years of age but did not have a significant effect on outpatient expenditures. The program produces results through two mechanisms: disease prevention and disease screening. The program is more effective in reducing medical expenses for older adults who live in rural areas, are younger, have lower educational levels, and have chronic illnesses. The benefits of the program’s implementation far outweigh its costs.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-024-04295-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-04295-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-024-04295-5

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().