The Effect of the “Triple-Layer Medical Security” Policy on the Vulnerability as Expected Poverty of Rural Households: Evidence from Yunnan Province, China

Abstract

China launched the “critical battle against poverty” nationwide in 2012. As its main battlefield, Yunnan province promulgated the “triple medical security” (TMS) policy in 2017. This study, based on the pooled cross-section database of 2015–2020 of registered poor households in Yunnan province, employed the logit model to examine the effect of TMS on the vulnerability as expected poverty (VEP) of these households. It found that increasing the reimbursement rates for overall medical expenses and inpatient expenses and decreasing the proportion of out-of-pocket medical payment to income reduced the VEP; increases in the number of sick people in the family increased its VEP, and although the increase in the reimbursement rate for overall medical expenses or for inpatient expenses partially offset the VEP caused by the increase in the number of chronically ill people in the family, the VEP caused by the increase in the number of critically ill people would increase in the short term with the increase in the reimbursement rate for overall medical expenses or for inpatient expenses. The findings help improve policies concerning the medical security and health of the rural poor population, providing theoretical reference and practical guidance for future research.

Effects of health poverty alleviation project from the perspective of vulnerability to poverty: evidence from five Chinese prefectures

“…First, this study should have considered differences in the prevalence of chronic and acute diseases. Some studies have revealed that HPAP may have different effects on VEP in patients with chronic or severe diseases [ 21 ]. Second, the limited duration of cross-sectional data used in this study may have negatively affected our conclusions.…”

Unravelling the influence and mechanism of agricultural inputs on rural poverty vulnerability: Evidence from China

“…Conventional measurements and definitions related to poverty provide a static analysis of the level of welfare of a household or individual at a point in time [ 25 ]. These conventional approaches do not predict future poverty status and are ex-post indicators.…”

Do Resettled People Adapt to Their Current Geographical Environment? Evidence from Poverty-Stricken Areas of Northwest Yunnan Province, China

“…Poverty vulnerability is usually defined by some relative benchmarks, such as Vulnerability as Expected Poverty (VEP) [48], Vulnerability as Low Expected Utility (VEU) [49] and Vulnerability as Uninsured Exposure to Risk (VER) [50]. Compared with VEU and VER, VEP has advantages in practical applications [51]. First, its data requirements are relatively low.…”