Can health service equity alleviate the health expenditure poverty of Chinese patients? Evidence from the CFPS and China health statistics yearbook

OBJECTIVES: To comprehend the relationship between various indicators of health service equity and patients’ health expenditure poverty in different regions of China, identify areas where equity in health service is lacking and provide ideas for improving patients’ health expenditure poverty. METHOD: Data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2018 and the HFGT index formula were used to calculate the health expenditure poverty index of each province. Moreover, Global Moran’s I and Local Moran’s I test are applied to measure whether there is spatial aggregation of health expenditure poverty. Finally, an elastic net regression model is established to analyze the impact of health service equity on health expenditure poverty, with the breadth of health expenditure poverty as the dependent variable and health service equity as the independent variable. RESULTS: In the developed eastern provinces of China, the breadth of health expenditure poverty is relatively low. There is a significant positive spatial agglomeration. “Primary medical and health institutions per 1,000 population”, “rural doctors and health workers per 1,000 population”, “beds in primary medical institutions per 1,000 population”, “proportion of government health expenditure” and “number of times to participate in medical insurance (be aided) per 1,000 population” have a positive impact on health expenditure poverty. “Number of health examinations per capita” and “total health expenditure per capita” have a negative impact on health expenditure poverty. Both effects passed the significance test. CONCLUSION: To enhance the fairness of health resource allocation in China and to alleviate health expenditure poverty, China should rationally plan the allocation of health resources at the grassroots level, strengthen the implementation of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment and encourage the investment in business medical insurance industry. Meanwhile, it is necessary to increase the intensity of medical assistance and enrich financing methods. All medical expenses of the poorest should be covered by the government. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-06675-y.