Does income matter for the policy effect of public long-term care insurance on informal care use in China? A quasi-experimental study

Abstract

Objective Since 2016, the Chinese government has been piloting a public long-term care insurance (LTCI) scheme. This study examined whether the LTCI scheme reduced the use of informal care and how this has varied across income groups. Method We used data from the 2011, 2014, and 2018 waves of Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, focusing on community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years and older. We used staggered difference-in-differences analyses with propensity score matching to examine the effects of the policy. Results The LTCI scheme reduced the probability and intensity of informal care use by 5.7% ( p < .05) and 17.4% ( p < .05), respectively. The policy impact was limited to older people in the middle-income group, reducing the probability and intensity of informal care use by 15.6% ( p < .001) and 43.1% ( p < .05), respectively. We did not find a statistically significant policy effect for older adults with high or low incomes. Conclusions The LTCI scheme had different effects on reducing the informal care burden for family caregivers by income level. We suggest that the scheme should entitle people with low incomes to a preferential co-payment rate, thereby enhancing their access to formal care.