Study on hospitalization benefit equity of the basic medical insurance programs in China
10.3969/j.issn.1674-2982.2017.03.008
- VernacularTitle:我国基本医疗保险住院服务受益公平性研究
- Author:
Yi YAO
;
Yi CHEN
;
Yuliang CHEN
- Keywords:
Basic medical insurance program;
Benefit equity;
Two-part model;
Hospitalization service
- From:
Chinese Journal of Health Policy
2017;10(3):40-46
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective: To analyze the equity of benefit for inpatient services under the three basic medical insurance programs in China.Methods: Using the baseline survey data collected by China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2010, and the two-part model was applied to explore whether the insured groups with different income levels had different aspects on inpatient rate and the compensation of hospitalization expenses in health insurance coverage.Results: There was no significant difference in the inpatient service utilization rate for different income groups, but the highest and second highest income groups reimburse more expenses than the lowest income group, that is 36.5% and 26.3%, respectively.Specifically, the income level and the compensation amount are not significantly correlated in the Urban Employer Medical Insurance (UEMI) program;the compensation amounts to be paid by urban residents are basically increasing with the increase of the income level;and there is a moderate discrepancy between the highest and the lowest income groups in the New Rural Cooperative Medical System (NCMS).Conclusion: The benefit equity is obviously fair in terms of inpatient service utilization rate, but the benefit degree increases for higher income groups, which shows that there are unfair inequalities related to the income at the level of reimbursement.In terms of program comparison, the benefit degree equity is higher for the UEMI program, followed by the URMI program and the NCMS program is the worst.Besides, the impatient rate and reimbursement amounts are significantly lower for NCMS program participants.The government should merge URMI and NCMS programs, actively promote the integration of basic medical insurance system by strengthening the construction of the medical assistance system and improving the system of catastrophic disease medical expenditure insurance in order to achieve better benefit equity.