Analysis On The Influence Of Household Demographic Structure On Household Participation In Commercial Health Insurance

The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out the need to "implement a healthy China strategy." With the encouragement of national policies,commercial health insurance has grown rapidly in recent years,but both the depth of insurance and the density of insurance are far from those of developed countries.At the same time,due to the aggravation of the aging population and the adjustment of the fertility policy,the household demographic structure in China is also undergoing great changes,especially the aging,the reduction of children and the smallscale family.It is helpful to promote the development of commercial health insurance by analyzing the influencing factors of household demographic structure on the purchase of commercial health insurance.This paper uses 2017 China Household Finance Survey(CHFS)data and uses Probit and Tobit models to explore the impact of household demographic structure on household participation in commercial health insurance.At present,there is no unified definition of the household demographic structure.This paper mainly focuses on the age structure and family size of the household.The proportion of the elderly population in a household,the proportion of children in a household and the total number of family members are the main variables of this paper.It is found that the proportion of the elderly population in a household has a significant negative impact on the household’s participation in commercial health insurance,which means that the aging of the population inhibits the household’s demand for commercial health insurance.The proportion of children in a household has a significant positive impact on the household’s participation in commercial health insurance,indicating that the increase in the proportion of children in a household will promote the household’s participation in commercial health insurance.Household size has a significant positive impact on household’s participation in commercial health insurance,indicating that reduced family size can help increase family demand for commercial health insurance.Considering the differences of different families,the sample families are grouped.The results show that the family sample in the central and western regions is significantly less affected by the household demographic structure than that in the eastern region;in different income families,the proportion of the elderly population has a negative effect on the participation of commercial health insurance,which is more obvious in high-income families,and the promotion effect of family size is more obvious in low-income families;household demographic structure has an impact on commercial health insurance participation of families with different education levels,especially for the families with lower education level;household structure of single family and lineal family will inhibit the family to buy commercial health insurance,and nuclear family will promote the demand of commercial health insurance;in families with different life cycles,the influence of household demographic structure on family commercial health insurance participation is more obvious in middle-aged and elderly families.Aiming at the endogenous problem,this paper uses the 2013,2015 and 2017 CHFS data to synthesize a balanced panel and uses the instrumental variable method for regression.The results show that the coefficients of the proportion of the elderly population,the proportion of the children population and the family size are basically consistent with the benchmark regression results.Based on the conclusions of the empirical results,this paper puts forward corresponding policy recommendations:(1)Increase the support for poverty-stricken areas and improve the disposable income of low-income families.(2)Increase the diversity of insurance products to meet the individual needs.(3)Increase policy support and strengthen top-level design.(4)Improve laws and regulations related to birth policies.(5)Promote insurance knowledge and enhance residents’ insurance awareness.(6)Improve the awareness of the medical security system and plan the allocation of family insurance in advance.