Revisiting income-related health inequality in China: changes before and after the 2009 healthcare reform

ABSTRACT

In 2009, the Chinese government launched a systemic healthcare reform. Despite the massive investment in the health sector, little is known about how health inequality across economic classes has changed after the reform. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), this study traces the income-related health inequality (IRHI) before and after the reform with the corrected concentration index (CCI). Furthermore, the inequality change is decomposed into income and non-income factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Health
• inequality
• healthcare reform
• concentration index

JEL CODES:

• D30
• D63
• I18

Acknowledgments

The author is most grateful to Prof. Mingshan Lu from the University of Calgary for many helpful suggestions for this research. However, the responsibility for all conclusions lies entirely with the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by “the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law [Grant #: 31512212203].