The Study Of Medical Insurance And Health Capital On Household Financial Asset Allocation

As the basic unit of society,family plays an important role in economic activities.Its asset allocation behavior completely determines the family’s living standard,and it also has a certain impact on the development of the macro economy.Since the reform and opening up,with the rapid development of China’s economy,household wealth has accumulated rapidly,and household savings have continued to increase steadily.Although the types of financial assets held by households have been greatly enriched,the allocation of risky financial assets is generally low,with non-risk or low-risk financial assets remain the investment focus.The report of the 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly stated that it is necessary to broaden the channels for residents’ labor income and property income,and to raise the income level of families.The singularity of the household financial assets structure is not conducive to the preservation and appreciation of family wealth,nor can it provide sufficient power for the operation of the entire national economy.Therefore,it is of important practical significance for the formulation of China’s macroeconomic policies,the reform of capital market,the improvement of household asset structure and welfare,to research on the selection behavior,influencing factors,and mechanism of households’ financial assets,and encourage families to actively and rationally participate in the risky financial market.The behavioral financial theory and experimental economics that have emerged in recent years have further studied the problem of limited participation of households in risky financial markets in reality,including the role of income risk,family life cycle and other factors.Health risk and medical insurance are important background variables in the research of household financial asset allocation,and many researches have conducted relevant discussions.However,a question that scholars often overlook is how to treat the relationship between medical insurance and health capital level? How to treat them as background variables or intermediary variables affecting the allocation of household financial risk assets? Essentially,individuals buy in order to meet their demands of medical service.What they ultimately need is a good health,not medical services or medical insurance.However,medical services and medical insurance as a financing mechanisms of medical services are the way and process for individuals to achieve their health goals.Therefore,in the analysis of the impact of medical insurance and health capital on the allocation of household financial assets,we need to consider the specific mechanism.According to the Health Production theory of Grossman in 1972,individuals can ensure their future health capital through health investment.As an important factor of health production,medical insurance not only affects the insured’s medical service utilization,but also affects their health awareness and other health behaviors,determines their final health capital level,and then has an impact on household financial asset allocation behavior.The utilization of medical service determines the improvement of their health capital for the individuals,and then affects their future income,family wealth and asset structure.The medical financial burden will also affect the economic decision-making and financial behavior such as consumption and savings for the families.In summary,this thesis introduces medical insurance,health capital,and household financial asset allocation into the same research framework.Based on the analysis of the overall role of medical insurance and health capital in household financial asset allocation,it studies the mechanism,including the mechanism role of health capital in the impact of medical insurance on household financial asset allocation,as well as the mechanism role of medical service utilization in the impact of medical insurance and health capital on the allocation of household financial assets.First,comprehensively review relevant basic theories and literature,and establish a theoretical analysis framework for medical insurance,health capital and household financial asset allocation behavior,and summarizes the research on the impact of health capital on family economic situation and its impact on household financial asset allocation behavior,the role and value of medical insurance and its impact on household financial asset allocation.Based on the Edwards(2010)asset portfolio model,combined with the health investment theory of Grossman(1972),a two-phase asset allocation model was established to analyze the effect of medical insurance and health capital on household asset allocation in theory.Meanwhile,based on the health production theory and medical service utilization model,this thesis discusses the mechanism role of health capital in the impact of medical insurance on household financial asset allocation,as well as the mechanism role of medical service utilization in the impact of medical insurance and health capital on the allocation of household financial assets,thus determining the empirical research structure of this thesis.Second,empirical research on the overall role of medical insurance and health capital in the allocation of household financial assets.Using panel probit model,panel tobit model and panel fixed effect model,the study shows that medical insurance and health capital can promote the allocation of risk financial assets of Chinese households.From further analysis of the role of health capital as an intermediary variable,it is found that for the probability of households holding risky financial assets,medical insurance and health care expenditure have both a direct effect and an indirect impact by affecting health capital;for the proportion of households holding risky financial assets,medical insurance and health care expenditures work through direct effects.Third,empirical examination on the mechanism of health capital in the impact of medical insurance on the household financial assets allocation.Using panel probit model and panel fixed effect model to analyze the panel data of CFPS in 2012,2014 and 2016,the study found that,as a whole,medical insurance can significantly improve the health capital of individuals,thus affecting their financial asset allocation behavior.However,this mechanism is not effective for all people.After grouping the total sample by individual age and income level,it was found that this improvement effect was mainly concentrated in young and middle-aged people and high-income people.Fourth,empirical research on the mechanism of medical service utilization level in the impact of medical insurance and health capital on household financial assets allocation.Using the panel data of CFPS in 2014 and 2016,the total personal medical expenses,out-of-pocket medical expenses and out-of-pocket ratio indicators were selected to measure the individual’s medical service usage and medical economic burden,as well as to analyze the impact of medical insurance on the use of medical services through empirical analysis of two models: panel fixed effect model and Heckman sample selection model.The study found that medical insurance can increase the probability of residents receiving medical services,increase the number of medical services they use and the total medical expenses,which help individuals to recover and improve their health status in time,play a positive role in the stability of their income level and family wealth,and thus improve the family’s behavior of allocating risky financial assets.In addition,although the medical insurance reduces the proportion of out-of-pocket medical expenses of the insured,it does not affect the actual payment of individuals,which shows that the medical expenses will still reduce the level of savings and wealth,improve their risk aversion,and reduce financial risk asset allocation.