The Economic Impact of Aging on Chinas Public Health: A Short-term Perspective

Abstract

In today's world, the aging of the population is an absolute trend. The aging of the population is the result of the improvement of the medical level, the decline of the birth rate and the extension of the life expectancy. China is experiencing the largest and fastest population aging process in the world. Population aging has brought huge challenges to the stable operation of China's medical insurance system and put pressure on the Chinese government's fiscal expenditure. This paper constructs a VAR model on population aging, medical insurance expenditure and GDP growth, find that past data have shown that GDP growth and medical insurance expenditure have adverse reactions to the intensification of population aging. In the prediction of the future, the further deepening of population aging will bring challenges to China's economic growth and government finance. Chinese government should adjust the policy on medical insurance expenditure to solve the problem caused by deeper aging, to promote the sustainable development of China's medical insurance.