The Impact of Internet Medical Information Overflow on Residents' Medical Expenditure Based on China's Observations.

Junqiang Han,Xiaodong Zhang,Yingying Meng

doi:10.3390/ijerph17103539

Abstract

Background: The rapid rise of medical expenditure is a common problem in the field of public health around the world, but the challenges for the Chinese government are even greater. How to control the rapid rise in medical expenditure and reduce individuals’ economic burden when receiving medical treatment has become one of the core issues that the Chinese government urgently needs to solve. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of Internet use on individuals’ medical expenditure and further discuss the potential impact mechanism. Methods: The data used in this study were from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) conducted by Peking University. The Heckman sample selection model was used to analyse the impact of Internet use on individuals’ medical expenditure. Results: Internet use reduced the medical expenditure of individuals by 6.19%; high frequency Internet use reduced the medical expenditure of individuals by 15.1%, while low frequency Internet use had no impact. In addition, Internet use had different impacts on individuals’ medical expenditure at different levels of hospitals. Specifically, Internet use reduced the medical expenditure of individuals who received medical treatment at general hospitals by 9.63%, and high frequency Internet use reduced the medical expenditure of individuals by 22.2%. However, Internet use had no impact on the medical expenditure of individuals who received medical treatment at primary hospitals. Conclusions: Findings from this study underscore the importance of Internet use as an important role in reducing individuals’ medical expenditure. The use of the Internet can significantly reduce the level of individuals’ medical expenditure, and high frequency Internet use has a greater effect. However, Internet use has different impacts on individuals’ medical expenditure among different levels of hospitals. The reduction effect of Internet use on individuals’ medical expenditure is mainly concentrated in general hospitals but has no effect in primary hospitals.

Highlights

The rapid rise of health care costs is a common problem in the field of public health around the world, but the challenges for Chinese government have been even greater in recent years
The regression results suggest that, after controlling for the individual characteristic variables, health status and socioeconomic indictors, Internet use can reduce individuals’ medical expenditure by 6.19% as compared with individuals who never use the Internet, and this result was significant at the 10% statistical level, which implies that Internet use can reduce individuals’
The results showed that, under the same conditions, as compared with individuals who never used the Internet, utilizing the Internet almost every day or utilizing the Internet sometimes had no impact on the medical expenditure of individuals treated in primary hospitals, which means that the frequency of Internet use had no impact on the medical expenditure of individuals treated in primary hospitals

Summary

Introduction

The rapid rise of health care costs is a common problem in the field of public health around the world, but the challenges for Chinese government have been even greater in recent years. The Chinese government launched a new round of medical and health system reform, in 2009, to comprehensively improve the health status of residents and reduce the financial burden of medical treatment, and one of the main initiatives was to massively increase the financial funds in the field of public health. The rapid rise of medical expenditure is a common problem in the field of public health around the world, but the challenges for the Chinese government are even greater. How to control the rapid rise in medical expenditure and reduce individuals’ economic burden when receiving medical treatment has become one of the core issues that the Chinese government urgently needs to solve. Internet use reduced the medical expenditure of individuals who received medical treatment at general hospitals by 9.63%, and high frequency Internet use reduced the medical expenditure of individuals by 22.2%

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion