The Impact of Medical Insurance for Urban and Rural Residents on Children's Education

Abstract

This article uses data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2016 and 2018 to explore the impact of health insurance on household education expenditure, parental education expectations, and patterns of child rearing. The results showed that medical insurance for urban and rural residents significantly increased family education expenditure and improve parents' educational expectations. Children who participated in medical insurance had 0.174% higher family education expenditure than children who did not participate in medical insurance. The probability of expecting their children to go to college was 0.040% higher than who did not participate in medical insurance. Medical insurance for urban and rural residents significantly changed parents' parenting styles. In order to solve the problem of sample imbalance and endogeneity, this paper selects a propensity score matching model for robustness testing, and the conclusions are basically consistent. Medical insurance for urban and rural residents affects children's education through improving health and income effects. The significance of this study is to introduce medical insurance into children's education and provide a new research perspective for evaluating the policy benefits of the basic medical insurance system.