Page 188 - GHES-2-1

Global Health Econ Sustain Income-related inequality in health

are more likely to enjoy access to health-care facilities protect poor older individuals to reduce income-related
equipped with high-quality equipment (Sun et al., 2020). inequalities in health. Furthermore, it is necessary for
Consequently, individuals in economically advantaged the government to improve individuals’ educational
regions are more inclined to report better health outcomes. attainment to increase their health awareness of the
Moreover, it is interesting to discover that the presence Health China 2030 Plan. This may reduce income-related
of medical insurance is not significantly associated with inequality in ADL disability in the long run, contributing
health and makes only a small contribution to total to healthy aging in the context of global aging.
inequality in health, a consistent finding reported in some It is worth noting that there are several limitations to this
studies (Sun et al., 2020). Based on Table 1, the percentage study. First, the data used in this study are cross sectional
of individuals with medical insurance is particularly high rather than longitudinal. However, it is reasonable to use
(approximately 90%), so it is reasonable that medical cross-sectional data since this study aims to capture the
insurance is not significantly related to health in this study. latest health status in China. Second, some independent
variables may have been neglected in the analysis. It is
5. Conclusion possible that there are other factors influencing health

The findings of this paper aim to provide the government that was not captured by the questionnaire. Third, this
with important policy implications with regard to LTC in study examined the level of income-related inequality, but
China. This study revealed that older individuals in lower- establishing the causal impact of income on health requires
income groups are more likely to have poorer health, such more sophisticated approaches that appropriately control
as bad SRH or ADL limitations. This emphasizes the need for selection and unobserved confounding. Further
for targeted interventions in the Health China 2030 Plan research is needed to understand the causal mechanisms
to reduce health disparities among older individuals with underlying the pro-rich inequality in health.
lower socioeconomic status. The Health China 2030 Plan
could allocate resources and implement policies aimed Acknowledgments
at addressing the specific health needs of this vulnerable The author thanks Peking University for providing the data.
group, ensuring that interventions are tailored to mitigate
the disparities identified in this study. In addition, the Funding
poor tend to have a greater need for LTC, but those who The study is supported by Minzu University of China
require LTC are those who are less likely to be able to afford (2023KYQD11).
it. Thus, the Health China 2030 Plan could advocate for
or implement income support programs targeting older Conflict of interest
individuals in lower-income groups. This might include The author declares no conflict of interest.
financial assistance, subsidies for health care, or other
measures aimed at improving the economic well-being of Author contributions
this population.
This is a single-authored article.
Nowadays, an increasing number of poor families are
moving to developed areas from underdeveloped areas Ethics approval and consent to participate
in the wake of urbanization. Typically, adult children can
only provide financial support to their parents rather than This study has been approved by the Research Ethics
instrumental support (Lin et al., 2014). In many European Committee of Peking University (IRB00001052-13074).
All participants or their proxy respondents have provided
countries, such as Germany and France, poor older written informed consent.
individuals have the option to receive a cash allowance,
direct services, or a combination of both, enabling them to Consent for publication
rely on formal LTC to meet their needs when informal care
is not sufficient (Campbell et al., 2010; Roit et al., 2010). All human participants have given consent for publishing
In Canada, the government offers various income support their data in this study.
programs for seniors, including the Old Age Security Availability of data
pension and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (Martin
et al., 2018). These programs provide financial assistance The CLHLS datasets and questionnaires are publicly
to eligible seniors, particularly those with lower incomes, available at the Peking University Open Research Data
to help meet their basic needs. By gaining inspiration Repository (https://opendata.pku.edu.cn/dataset.
from the given examples, the Chinese government should xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.18170/DVN/WBO7LK).

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 9 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.2243