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Economic crisis of rural patients insured with critical illness insurance: Do working‐age patients have higher financial burden?
Author(s) -
Jiang Junnan,
Chen Shanquan,
Xin Yanjiao,
Li Lu,
Xiang Li
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
health and social care in the community
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.984
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1365-2524
pISSN - 0966-0410
DOI - 10.1111/hsc.13110
Subject(s) - medicine , debt , rural area , descriptive statistics , multivariate analysis , financial crisis , indirect costs , health care , demography , environmental health , finance , business , economics , economic growth , macroeconomics , statistics , mathematics , accounting , pathology , sociology
Working‐age patients are generally found to have higher healthcare expenditure than elder. China implemented critical illness insurance (CII) in 2012 to decrease the medical expenditure of patients. The aim of this study was to determine if the economic burden of rural working‐age patients with CII was more serious than other age groups. A questionnaire survey was undertaken in two counties of central and western China in 2017. Comprehensive financial measurement was used, including direct costs, indirect costs and medical debt rate. All data collected were used for descriptive statistics and multivariate variance analysis. Linear regression with random effect analysis upon area was used to evaluate the differences in ages. A total of 834 rural patients were surveyed in this study. Patients aged 18–44 years had the highest lodging and food payments (3,838 Chinese Yuan [CNY]), work loss (15,350 CNY) and medical debt rate (83.24%). Patients who were of working age, sought health services out of counties, had longer length of stay, and were diagnosed with chronic illness had higher healthcare expenditure. Rural working‐age patients with CII had higher direct and indirect costs, which were attributed to medical debt. The increased service capability of hospitals in counties and improved medical financial assistance may also be issues of concern.