患病概率与医疗消费的城乡不平等

Probability of Illness and Inequality in Medical Expenditures of Urban and Rural Residents

根据我国两种常用的衡量医疗消费城乡不平等程度方法及结论存在的缺陷,在考虑城市和农村人口的患病概率以后,对CHN S 2000年的调查数据进行再分析,得出了农村人口比城市人口的患病概率低1.6个百分点的结论。据此可知,现有常用的衡量我国医疗消费城乡不平等程度的计算方法或许高估了实际的不平等程度,高估幅度约达20%。

This paper first demonstrates the extent of inequality in the medical expenditures of urban and rural residents in China, employing two popular measurements in existing literatures. Observing the defects of these two measuring methods, we suggest that the difference in probability of getting sick should be taken into account when the extent of inequality is measured. Using the survey data of China Health and Nutrition Survey in 2000, it is found that the probability of illness of rural residents is lower than that of urban residents by 1.6 percentage, which is a result of the urban/rural differences in such aspects as medical facilities, living style, environment, etc.. Based upon this empirical analysis, it is concluded that the existing measurement of inequality in medical expenditures overestimates the actual extent of inequality by 20%.