Floating Population, Housing Security and Family Medical Economic Risk

Abstract

With the rapid development of China’s economy and the acceleration of urbanization, the country’s housing security system is constantly improving. To address the housing difficulties experienced by low- and middle-income populations, China has formulated the housing provident fund system and the affordable housing system. However, especially for the floating population, housing and medical security have not resulted in an equalization of services. We thus analyze data from Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to describe the influence of housing security on the family medical economic risk of the floating population. According to the results, the payment of housing provident fund can effectively reduce the incidence of catastrophic health expenditures. In contrast, per capita financial expenditure on affordable housing will significantly increase family medical economic risk. Heterogeneity tests based on the household register and income levels show that the impacts of housing security vary across populations. In addition, the influence mechanism analysis shows that the impact is mediated through housing mortgage loans. Based on the conclusions drawn, three policy recommendations of optimizing the guarantee function of the housing provident fund system, expanding the coverage of affordable housing policy, and promoting the coordinated development of housing and medical security are proposed. This research not only has theoretical and practical significance for the establishment of the security system for the floating population in China but also provides an effective reference for the development of housing and medical security systems in other countries.