The Effect of Health Insurance Reform: Evidence from China

Huajing He () and Patrick Nolen
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Huajing He: University of Essex

No 11892, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper estimates the impact of a health insurance reform on health outcomes in urban China. Using the China Health and Nutrition Survey we find that this reform increases the rate of health insurance coverage significantly among workers in Non-State Owned Enterprises. The double difference (DD) estimations show that the reform also leads to better health outcomes: workers are less likely to get sick and more likely to use preventive care. Using an instrumental variable (IV) approach to look at the causal effect of health insurance, we find those with health insurance use more preventive care but do not report significantly better health outcomes, an increase in health care utilisation, or an increase in out-of-pocket medical expenditure.

Keywords: health outcomes; health insurance reform; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H43 H51 O2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2018-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-hea, nep-ias and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: China Economic Review, 2019, 53, 168 - 179

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Related works:
Journal Article: The effect of health insurance reform: Evidence from China (2019)
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