Analysis on Medical Insurance Status of the Elderly in Urban Shaanxi Province of China

Abstract

Objective: This paper contributed to summarize researches of population aging and medical insurance in China and Shaanxi Province and worked out the health service demands and medical insurance status of the elderly in Shaanxi Province. Moreover, it demonstrated the present situation and challenges of medical insurance of the elderly in urban areas in Shaanxi Province and explored effective ways of optimizing the medical insurance system of the elderly in urban China. Methods: Methods including cluster random sampling, questionnaire survey and interview were conducted. Data analysis was performed by SPSS 21.0. And logistic regression analysis was used to analyse factors that affected the satisfaction rate. Results: 1. The covering rate of China’s urban basic medical insurance among interviewees is high (96.0%). 2. The ratio of reimbursement of hospitalization expenses (73.2%) was much higher than that of outpatient services (22.0%). 3. Self-paid expenses for outpatients on hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes were high for 90.3%, 87.7% and 85.2%. 4. Interviewees who lived close to the nearest medical institution, participated in commercial medical insurances, had no physical examinations within one year and had bad subjective health status were more possible to be satisfied with the social basic medical insurance system. Conclusion: The country should provide the elderly with convenience and new ways to meet their medical demands by strengthening preventions of chronic diseases of the elderly, improving the security level of the urban basic medical insurance and perfecting reimbursement system of medical expenses paid in other cities.