Study On The Regional Differences In The Cost Of Hospice Care For The Elderly

With the continuous development of our country's economy,the problem of aging of population is becoming more and more serious.In the late years,the elderly are mostly suffering from health problems such as various diseases or cognitive impairment,which will lead to higher cost of care.Some old people even spend their lifetime savings on hospice treatment.High cost of final care will cause a greater burden on the elderly,the family,the children and the society.However,there are great differences between the old people and other social and economic environmental factors among different regions,so it's necessary to analysis and research in sub region.Although a lot of analysis and research have been made on the condition of hospice care at home and abroad,there are few articles using the sample data of the elderly in the country.In addition,there are few researches from regional differences about the cost of hospice care.In recent years,the research on the cost of care for the elderly is increasing,but the conclusions are roughly similar.Most of the conclusions are about the age,education,residence model,caregiver,the number of children and the health status of the elderly.In this paper,we studied the regional differences in the cost of hospice care for the elderly in China,using the data of 2008-2014 years' Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey(CLHLS).The results showed that there were significant regional differences in the cost of hospice medical care for the elderly and the number of days to take care of the elderly.Under the control of the individual characteristic variables,family background variables,economic conditions variables and health status variables,the total medical cost,self-paid medical cost,daily direct cost of caring of the elderly,the number of days the elderly were taken care of and the proportion of these costs in annual household income in the developed areas were significantly higher than those in the less developed areas.Secondly,as the per capita GDP of the economically developed areas is relatively higher,the number of beds per 10000 people is also more,but the environmental quality of these areas is poorer,which leads to more days to be taken care of,and more medical expenses.Finally,according to the conclusion of the analysis,combined with the reform of the national social security system,especially the "comprehensive poverty reduction"strategy which is vigorously pursued at present,this paper aims at different regions and different subjects,and discusses how to reduce the difference of the elderly care costs,reduce the burden of care for the children and promote the overall poverty reduction of the elderly,put forward some practical policy suggestions.In particular,the government should improve the medical conditions of these people and increase the intensity of environmental pollution control for the old men with poor health and living alone in the economically developed areas.The government should provide economic subsidies for the children with greater care burden in the less developed areas,and reduce children's stress both in the economy and mentality,which can further improve the treatment rate,survival probability and quality of death in elderly patients.