雾霾污染对商业健康保险发展的影响

Effect of haze pollution on the development of commercial health insurance

雾霾污染不仅影响了中国经济增长的质量和政府形象,也严重影响了公众的健康,使人们承受着“无法呼吸的痛”。商业健康保险是中国社会保障体系的重要一环,公众对雾霾污染影响健康的关注增加了对健康保险的需求。研究雾霾污染与商业健康保险发展的关系对制定治霾政策和完善社会保障体系具有重大的意义。然而,已有文献仅从微观视角研究空气污染对商业健康保险购买决策的影响,忽视了空气污染的空间溢出效应,可能导致实证结果的偏误。因此,本文基于2004—2015年全国30个省份的面板数据,通过空间Durbin模型实证研究雾霾污染对商业健康保险发展的直接影响与空间溢出效应。研究发现:①雾霾污染对商业健康保险发展没有显著的直接影响,原因在于公众对雾霾污染影响健康的主观认知具有时滞性,只有公众充分认识到雾霾污染影响健康,才会产生购买商业健康保险决策,进而对商业健康保险发展产生直接影响。通过分阶段识别雾霾影响,发现雾霾污染对商业健康保险发展的直接影响在2010年以后显著,这契合了中国雾霾污染的演进历史。②雾霾污染对商业健康保险发展有正向显著的空间溢出效应,其他地区雾霾污染的加重,会促进本地区商业健康保险的发展。③从空间分布来看,中部和东部地区的雾霾污染对商业健康保险发展的空间溢出效应明显大于西部地区。为解决日益严重的雾霾污染问题,需要进行科学的顶层设计,转变经济发展方式,实现产业结构优化升级。建立区域间“联防联控”的协同机制,构建统一的环境污染监测平台,实行区域环境信息共享机制。此外,需要完善商业健康保险相关政策,以满足公众的需求,助推“健康中国”建设。

The haze pollution not only affects the quality of China’s economic growth and the image of the government,but also seriously affects the public’s health and imposes‘inability to breathe’on people.Commercial health insurance is an important part of China’s social security system.Public attention on the outcomes of haze pollution to health has increased the demand for commercial health insurance.Studying the relationship between haze pollution and the development of commercial health insurance is of great significance for making haze-controlling policy and improving social security system.However,the existing literature only studies the impact of air pollution on commercial health insurance purchase decisions from a micro perspective,ignoring the spatial spillover effect of air pollution,which may lead to bias in empirical results.Therefore,based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2015,this paper empirically studies the direct influence and spillover effect of haze pollution on the development of commercial health insurance with the spatial Durbin model.The results show that:①Haze pollution does not have significant direct influences on the development of commercial health insurance.The reason is that the public’s subjective cognition that haze pollution affects health is time-delay.Only when the public fully realizes that haze affects their health will it affect their decision to purchase commercial health insurance,which will have a direct influence on the development of commercial health insurance.By identifying the influence of haze pollution in stages,it is found that haze pollution had a positive significant direct influence on commercial health insurance after 2010,which was in line with the changes of haze in China.②Haze pollution has a positive significant spatial spillover effect on the development of commercial health insurance.The intensification of haze pollution in other regions will promote the local development of commercial health insurance.③From the perspective of spatial distribution,the spatial spillover effect of haze pollution on commercial health insurance development in central and eastern China is significantly greater than that in the western region.To solve the increasingly serious haze pollution,implementing scientific top-level design,transforming the economic development mode,and optimizing and upgrading the industrial structure are especially needed.Moreover,we should establish a synergy mechanism for‘joint prevention and control’between regions,build a unified environmental pollution monitoring platform,and implement a regional environmental information sharing mechanism.In addition,the policies related to commercial health insurance should be perfected to meet the needs of the public so as to promote the construction of‘healthy China’.