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Demand for private health insurance in Chinese urban areas
Author(s) -
Ying XiaoHua,
Hu TehWei,
Ren Jane,
Chen Wen,
Xu Ke,
Huang JinHui
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.1206
Subject(s) - actuarial science , willingness to pay , contingent valuation , china , business , health insurance , risk pool , pooling , chinese city , valuation (finance) , insurance policy , health care , general insurance , demographic economics , environmental health , economics , medicine , economic growth , finance , geography , archaeology , artificial intelligence , computer science , microeconomics
Between 1993 and 2003, the proportion of urban residents without health insurance rose from 27 to 50%. The probability of outpatient visits in the previous 2 weeks dropped from 19.9 to 11.8% in urban areas between 1993 and 2003, and from 16.0 to 13.9% in rural areas. To improve risk‐pooling and risk‐sharing, private health insurance should play an important role in China's health insurance system. This paper estimates the demand for private health insurance in urban areas using contingent valuation methods. Individuals were asked about their willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for major catastrophic disease insurance (MCDI), inpatient expenses insurance (IEI), and outpatient expenses insurance (OEI). The study was based on a household survey conducted in four small cities in China in 2004 and included 2671 respondents. More people would like to buy IEI and MCDI (48.5 and 43.0%, respectively) than OEI (24.5%). In addition, individuals would pay a higher premium for MCDI and IEI than for OEI. The price elasticities of demand for MCDI, IEI, and OEI were −0.27, −0.34, and −0.42, respectively. The determinants of enrollment in the three private health insurance programs were similar with employment status, age, education, and income. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.