医疗保障对居民消费水平的影响——基于省级面板数据的实证研究

近年来,我国居民消费持续走低,在GDP中所占的比重持续下降,消费需求不足已经成为制约我国经济发展的重要因素之一。本文立足于保险学和消费者理论的基础,使用我国31个省、自治区、直辖市的面板数据,系统研究医疗保障体系对居民消费的影响,发现基本医疗保险和商业健康保险对于居民消费均具有明显促进作用,其中城镇居民基本医保对消费的刺激作用大于新农合医保,商业健康保险的促进作用要大于城镇职工基本医保。在此基础上,提出了相应的政策建议。

The Effect of Health Insurance on Household Consumption: Empirical Analysis with Panel Data at Province Level

Over recent years,household consumption in China was declining consistently,together with its share in GDP.The lackluster domestic consumption had become one of the restrictive factors of economic development.To examine the effect of health insurance coverage on household consumption,we utilized both statistical and qualitative analysis methods,and based on economic principles relevant to insurance and consumption.The panel data of China′s 31 provinces was used in our econometric model.The main findings of our empirical analysis were that basic social health insurance and commercial health insurance both had significant positive effects on consumption.Furthermore,the stimulating effect of the basic social medical insurance for urban residents was bigger than that of new rural cooperative medical insurance,while the commercial health insurance had more impacts on consumption than the basic social medical insurance for urban workers.Finally we made some suggestions for policymakers on the health insurance system reform in near future.