Abstract
To explore the effect of the New Rural Social Pension Insurance (NRSPI) program on the choice of medical institutions for rural elderly is not only an effective entry point to test the influence of the NRSPI program, but also plays an significant role in maintaining people's health, improving our nation’s retirement pension system and the construction of the new countryside. To this end, based on the five periods of Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data from 2010 to 2018, this paper used Logit model and DID model to empirically investigate the impact of the NRSPI program on the choice of medical institutions for rural elderly. The empirical results show that: first, the NRSPI program can significantly promote the rural elderly to choose higher level of medical institutions for medical treatment. Specifically, receiving the NRSPI pension will increase the probability of rural elderly choosing hospitals at the county level and above by 8.6%, the hospitals at the township level by 2.5%, and will decrease the likelihood of choosing hospitals at the village level by 5.5%.Second, the effects of the NRSPI program are heterogeneous. Compared with the rural elderly in high income families, the program has a greater impact on the choice of medical institutions for those in low income families. Compared with the rural elderly in the eastern region, the program has a greater impact on the selection of county level hospitals and above by those in the central and western regions, but has less impact on the selection of village level hospitals.
Highlights
Health is the basic requirement for individual survival and the fundamental condition for economic and social development
Is the choice of medical institutions for rural elderly as an important part of their medical treatment behavior affected by the program? How deep is the program impact? Is there heterogeneity in the effects of the program? Further discussion on these issues is an effective entry point to test the influence of the New Rural Social Pension Insurance (NRSPI) program, and plays an significant role in maintaining people's health, improving our nation’s retirement pension system and the construction of the new countryside
The NRSPI program provides a certain amount of pension income for rural elderly who are eligible for pension, and to partly improve their medical payment ability, affecting their medical treatment behavior
Summary
Health is the basic requirement for individual survival and the fundamental condition for economic and social development. Ensuring that the elderly in rural areas have access to care and medical treatment is an inevitable requirement to safeguard people's health and promote social equity, and an important measure to achieve rural revitalization and promote national economic development. To this end, in 2009, the State Council decided to pilot the New Rural Social Pension Insurance (NRSPI) program for 10 % of counties across the country.
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