Analysis Of Efficiency And Consumer Welfare Of Medical Industry Competition

As an important industry which is closely related to people’s livelihood and people’s life,the development of medical industry is also concerned by the government.With the rapid economic and social progress,the medical level has been in the stage of rapid improvement,whether in hardware facilities or medical quality has been greatly improved.However,with the increasing demand for medical care,the mismatch between medical supply and demand has led to frequent problems in the industry,"expensive" and "difficult to see a doctor" phenomenon has been a huge problem for the government and people’s lives.With the deepening of supply side reform,to solve the problems of the medical industry,starting from the supply side is the fundamental solution.Due to China’s long-term implementation of the planned economic system before the reform and opening up,the monopoly situation of public hospitals has not been improved,which leads to low market efficiency,high medical costs and overcrowding of hospitals.In response to this problem,the government has carried out a series of reforms to relax the restrictions on private hospitals and promote the competition in the medical industry in order to break the monopoly and promote the healthy development of the medical industry.The new medical reform implemented in 2009 has a great impact on the society,but can the introduction of private hospital competition in the supply side of the medical industry have an effective impact on promoting the efficiency of the medical industry and consumer welfare?This will be the focus of this article.This paper analyzes the impact of competition on both producers and consumers,that is,the impact of competition in the medical industry on hospital efficiency and consumer welfare.First of all,the domestic and foreign literature research is sorted out to clarify the current academic description of the medical industry and the impact of industry competition on efficiency and consumer welfare.On the basis of the existing research,this paper makes a theoretical analysis and description of the competition pattern of the whole medical industry,which shows that the current competition environment of private hospitals is still the dominant situation of public hospitals in medical services.Using 2010-2017 data to measure medical efficiency,on this basis to explore the impact of medical industry competition on efficiency,and use FGLS model to test its impact.At the same time,based on the Marshall function,the influence of competition is introduced to construct the medical demand function,and on this basis,the specific value of consumer welfare changes caused by competition enhancement is calculated to prove the impact of competition on consumer welfare.Through theoretical analysis and empirical test,this paper finds that in terms of efficiency,although the proportion of private hospitals has increased,showing the situation of full competition and diversified competition forms,the competition is one-sided and inadequate,and the monopoly situation of public hospitals has not been completely changed.Such monopoly market structure restricts the medical market behavior,which leads to the failure of effective market performance.The increase in the number of private hospitals can relatively limit the scale of public hospitals,which has a certain impact on the efficiency improvement,but in the field of medical services,the impact of private hospitals is not significant.In terms of consumer welfare,hospital competition has a significant impact on the increase of outpatient and inpatient services,but the effect is relatively weak.With the increasing number of private hospitals and the rising price of medical services,the consumer welfare of outpatient services is on the decline,while that of inpatient services is on the rise.Based on the above conclusions,this paper also puts forward corresponding policy recommendations for the current medical industry competition,which should gradually establish a fair competition environment,increase the support for private hospitals;transfer the focus of private hospitals to grass-roots hospitals and general hospitals,gradually improve the quality of medical care;strengthen supervision,improve relevant laws and regulations,and promote the healthy development of the medical industry.