Is the medical financial assistance program an effective supplement to social health insurance for low-income households in China? A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: China uses both social health insurance (SHI) programs and a medical financial assistance (MFA) program to protect the poor from illness-induced financial risks. The MFA provides a dual benefit package targeting low-income families: subsidizing these families’ participation in SHI programs, and providing cash aid to protect them from catastrophic health expenditure (CHE). This study aims to investigate: (1) the association between MFA subvention for SHI enrollment and SHI enrollment; (2) the association between MFA cash aid and CHE; and (3) the association between SHI enrollment and CHE in low-income households in China. METHODS: Using nationally representative data from a comprehensive survey of low-income households in 2014, we construct an estimate of CHE based on out-of-pocket health spending data. Controlling for other covariates, we estimate the three associations using a three-level logistic model. RESULTS: The MFA program subsidizes 50.1% of low-income households to aid their enrollment in SHI programs and provides cash aid to 24.1% of these households. Multilevel logistic analysis reveals that MFA subvention has no significant association with low-income households’ SHI enrollment, that MFA cash aid has no significant association with CHE, and that full SHI enrollment is inversely associated with CHE status. CONCLUSIONS: The MFA program is currently not an effective supplement to SHI programs in China in terms of promoting SHI enrollment and providing financial risk protection. The Chinese government needs to invest more funds to expand further low-income household enrollment in SHI programs and to widen the benefit package of MFA cash aid. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12939-017-0638-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.