Smart Elderly Health Care and Medical Expenses:Evidence from the Smart Elderly Health Care Demonstration Sites
As China's aging population escalates healthcare costs,this paper explores whether smart elderly health care—a novel"In-temet+Healthcare"model—can reduce medical expenses and alleviate healthcare burdens.The study employs an overlapping generations model and a staggered difference-in-differences(DID)approach,utilizing data from the China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)spanning from 2012 to 2020 to evaluate the policy's impact on medical costs.The analysis reveals that pilot policies for smart elderly health care reduced elderly hospitalization rates by 3.84％and significantly lowered inpatient costs,outpatient costs,total medical expenses,and out-of-pocket expenses by 31.26％,57.65％,63.91％,and 47.53％,respectively.After a series of robustness tests,this conclusion still holds.The study identifies key mechanisms,including lowering transportation costs,improving chronic disease management,and encouraging preventive exer-cise,though its potential to foster"enjoyable aging"remains limited.Further analysis highlights its effectiveness in reducing healthcare bur-dens across diverse demographic and regional elderly populations through essential services such as daily care,health management,and emotional support,aligning with the goals of"all-inclusive elderly care services".These findings offer valuable insights for addressing pop-ulation aging and mitigating healthcare challenges in aging societies.
smart elderly health careMedical Expenseall-inclusive elderly care services
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