Mengying Wang
Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330013, P. R. China
Title: Research on Regional Equity Measurement of Government Health Expenditure in China
Biography
Biography: Mengying Wang
Abstract
With the rapid growth of total health and medicine expenditure in China, the significant difference in health expenditure among different regions are becoming outstanding. The equity of Chinese government health expenditure (GHE) has been a hot topic in the field of public health care service. The scholars all over the world think that fair medical and health services are very important. Scholars use different methods to measure the GHE equity, among which Gini coefficient and Theil index are the most widely used. Based on the research methods of most scholars, the Gini coefficient and Theil index are used to measure the GHE equity in this paper. The results show that the overall GHE tends to be fair from 2005 to 2014. However, from 2015 to 2016, the GHE equity declines slightly. After decomposing the Theil index of national GHE, this paper finds that the intra-regional differences are greater than inter-regional differences, and the intraregional and inter-regional difference result in the inequity of the national GHE. The contribution rate of increased inequity of intra-region is greater than that of inter-region. This paper continues to decompose the regional disparities of government health expenditure in China, and finds that the GHE equity in eastern, western and central provinces has increased year by year, while it in northeastern provinces has declined, and it in eastern areas has the greatest impact on the equity of national GHE.