University of Nottingham Ningbo China
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Impact of China's Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance on Health Care Utilization and Expenditure

Date(s)
21 November 2012 (02:30-03:30)
Description

The Division of Economics and The Nottingham Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy (GEP) China are pleased to invite you to the following research seminar given by Professor Zhong Zhao from Renmin University of China:

About the Seminar

In 2007, China launched a subsidized voluntary public health insurance program, the Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance, for urban residents without formal employment, including children, the elderly, and other unemployed urban residents. We estimate the impact of this program on health care utilization and expenditure using 2006 and 2009 waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey. We find that this program has significantly increased the utilization of formal medical services. This result is robust to various specifications and multiple estimation strategies. However, there is no evidence that it has reduced out-of-pocket expenditure and some evidence suggesting that it has increased the total health care expenditure. We also find that this program has improved medical care utilization more for the elderly, for the low- and middle-income families, and for the residents in the relatively poor western region.

About the speaker

Zhong Zhao is a professor of economics at the School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, and a research fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) at Bonn, Germany. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the Renmin University of China and a doctorate degree in economics from the Johns Hopkins University. Before joining Renmin University of China, he had worked for IZA as a Senior Research Associate. His main research areas are labor economics, applied micro-econometrics, social programme evaluation, and Chinese economy. His research outputs have been published in internationally-renowned journals such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Review of Income and Wealth, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (Series A) , Economics Letters, and Journal of Population Economics.

All are welcome!