Chronic Illness and Income Diversification in Rural China

The Effect of the "Triple-Layer Medical Security" Policy on the Vulnerability as Expected Poverty of Rural Households: Evidence from Yunnan Province, China

China launched the "critical battle against poverty" nationwide in 2012. As its main battlefield, Yunnan province promulgated the "triple medical security" (TMS) policy in 2017. This study, based on the pooled cross-section database of 2015-2020 of registered poor households in Yunnan province, employed the logit model to examine the effect of TMS on the vulnerability as expected poverty (VEP) of these households. It found that increasing the reimbursement rates for overall medical expenses and inpatient expenses and decreasing the proportion of out-of-pocket medical payment to income reduced the VEP; increases in the number of sick people in the family increased its VEP, and although the increase in the reimbursement rate for overall medical expenses or for inpatient expenses partially offset the VEP caused by the increase in the number of chronically ill people in the family, the VEP caused by the increase in the number of critically ill people would increase in the short term with the increase in the reimbursement rate for overall medical expenses or for inpatient expenses. The findings help improve policies concerning the medical security and health of the rural poor population, providing theoretical reference and practical guidance for future research.

Measuring Multidimensional Health Poverty in China

This article defines the concept of “multidimensional health poverty,” considering both the monetary aspects and multidimensional health deprivation of health poverty. Moreover, we set up the multidimensional health poverty index (MHPI) to measure health poverty in China by revising the traditional A-F MPI method, specifically we use the Catastrophic Health Expenditure (CHE) as a sufficient condition and income poverty as a necessary condition, and take physical, mental, and social health into account. The measurement result evidences that physical health, monetary dimensions (CHE and income poverty), and mental health contribute most to health poverty in China. In addition, the MHPI is significantly higher in rural areas than urban because of higher out-of-pocket medical payments and health deprivation in more dimensions. Compared with the traditional method, the MHPI is more accurate, stable, and comprehensive, making it more suitable for measuring health poverty.