环境污染与卫生总费用的关系分析——基于我国31个省际面板数据的实证研究

Analysis of the relationship between environmental pollution and total health expenditure——An empirical study based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China

目的 卫生总费用的持续增长已成为各个国家普遍关注的热切话题。中国卫生总费用以高于经济增速的态势,给政府和居民带来沉重的经济负担。近年来,环境污染加剧,给人类造成潜在的健康风险和经济损失,直接导致了卫生总费用的迅速增加。通过实证分析环境污染对卫生总费用的影响,继而提出抑制其快速增长的政策建议。方法 基于2007-2018年我国31个省市的面板数据,运用主成分分析法对选取的环境污染指标进行降维处理,对特征变量建立变截距固定效应回归模型来具体分析环境污染与卫生总费用之间的关系。结果 面板数据的回归结果显示,环境污染与卫生总费用存在显著的正相关关系,环境污染每增加1%,卫生总费用增加0.095 2%,在5%的置信水平下具有统计学意义。控制变量均与卫生总费用呈正相关,且均在5%和1%置信水平下通过显著性检验。结论 环境污染导致卫生总费用显著增加。因此,从加强环境污染治理,转变经济发展方式,均衡配置医疗卫生资源,合理控制人口规模等方面控制其过度增长。

Objective The continuous increase of total health expenditure has become a hot topic of universal concern in all countries. The total health expenditure in China is higher than the economic growth rate, which brings heavy economic burden to the government and residents. In recent years, the aggravation of environmental pollution has caused potential health risks and economic losses to human beings, which directly leads to the rapid increase of total health costs. Based on the empirical analysis of the impact of environmental pollution on the total health expenditure, some policy suggestions are put forward to restrain its rapid growth. Methods Based on panel data of 31 provinces and cities in China from 2007 to 2018, principal component analysis was used to reduce dimension of selected environmental pollution indicators, and variable intercept fixed effect regression model was established for characteristic variables to specifically analyze the relationship between environmental pollution and total health costs. Results The regression results of panel data showed that there is a significant positive correlation between environmental pollution and total health costs. For every 1% increase in environmental pollution, the total health cost increased by 0.0952%, which was statistically significant at the confidence level of5%. The control variables were positively correlated with the total health expenditure, and passed the significance test at the confidence level of 5% and 1%. Conclusion Environmental pollution leads to a significant increase in total health costs. Therefore, it is necessary to control its excessive growth from the aspects of strengthening environmental pollution control, transforming economic development mode, balancing allocation of medical and health resources, and reasonable control of population size.