How does workplace change affect healthcare utilization? An empirical study from China

Migrant workers play important roles in China’s urbanization, yet still have no fair access to public medical services and quality care. However, their health status and healthcare utilization behavior have rarely been studied. Addressing this gap, this paper explored the relationships between workplace change and healthcare utilization, using data from the 2014 and 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS), the ordinary least squares (OLS) and Heckman models were applied to empirically analyze the effect of workplace change on the utilization of medical services for migrant workers, and the binary Logit regression model was used to examine the impact of the workplace change on their medical services utilization and their participation rate of the Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance. Our results indicate that the medical services utilization of migrant workers with workplace change is significantly reduced compared with those who do not. Basic medical insurance serves as a mechanism transmitter in the relationship between workplace change and medical service utilization. Meanwhile, a longer distance of mobility corresponds to a stronger negative effect of workplace change on medical service utilization and a more obvious effect of the basic medical insurance mechanism. These results reveal inequalities in healthcare utilization among migrant workers. Facing this challenge, it is important to solve the problem of inequality, ensure that migrant workers can fairly enjoy corresponding medical services, and improve their utilization of medical services. This requires the joint efforts of China’s medical insurance fund management and medical system.