Urban-Rural Health Insurance Integration and China’s Rural Household Savings

Abstract

Background

A linchpin to realizing the internal circulation (referring to the domestic cycle of production, distribution and consumption) is reducing residents’ saving rate and expanding the domestic needs. However, rural residents in China demonstrate a strong propensity to save money.

Methods

In light of practical characteristics of urban-rural health integration promoted in different places, the three-phase data (from 2014 to 2018) and the dual difference-in-differences model of the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS) are used to empirically investigate the impact of urban-rural health insurance integration on rural household savings.

Results

Research reveals that urban-rural health integration can reduce the health risks and medical risks facing rural households, thus weakening the motivation of precautionary savings. The analysis of heterogeneity reveals that the integration of urban-rural health insurance significantly influences the savings rates of households headed by older individuals, particularly women, with lower levels of educational attainment. Besides, the single-tier health insurance system can have a more significant impact, whereas the multi-tier insurance system may not significantly affect the savings rate.

Conclusion

Based on the aforesaid research conclusions, this article believes that in order to reduce the savings rate of rural households and expand consumption, the health insurance system should be further improved.

Keywords:

• urban-rural health insurance integration
• rural household
• savings rate
• health risks
• medical risks

Abbreviations

CLDS, China Labor-force Dynamics Survey; DID, Difference-in-differences.

Data Sharing Statement

Please contact Zhiguang Li for data requests.

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

Not applicable. The CLDS is a publicly available dataset that has been anonymized and de-identified prior to its release. This dataset is considered secondary data, with no direct interaction between our research team and the subjects of the survey. The anonymization process undertaken by the CLDS ensures that individual respondents cannot be identified, thereby mitigating privacy and confidentiality concerns. Given these characteristics, our study falls within the scope of research activities that do not typically require IRB review.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This study benefited from research grants of Collaborative Innovation Program of Anhui Provincial Education Department (Grant No. GXXT-2022-095), Excellent Youth Research Program of Anhui Provincial Education Department (Grant No. 2023AH030071) and Youth Talent Program of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine (Grant No. 2021qnyc12;No. 2023rcyb015).