Public Health Insurance and Labor Supply of Middle-aged and Elderly People in China

According to cross-sectional data in 2013 wave and 2015 wave of CHARLS, there is research for effects of public health insurance on labor supply of people who are middle-aged and elderly in China by Ordinary Least Square. China is facing severe labor supply problems because of the aging population. Moreover, people who are middle-aged and seniors play a significant role in Chinese labor market. The paper will focus on studying labor participation and the labor hours of middle-aged and older adults. Meanwhile, public health insurance is one of the focuses of this research. Nowadays, there is a significant public health insurance named New Rural Cooperative Medical insurance (NRCMI), which has been implemented for many years. It aims to support the health status of people who are middle-aged and seniors. After a series of calculations and studies, it shows that NRCMI has great effects on labor decisions of people in middle-aged and seniors. NRCMI can improve the labor participation by 11.6 percentage points, and it can also increase the labor hours by 239.343 hours. Therefore, NRCMI has a tremendous impact on China's labour supply, and the government should increase the promotion of NRCMI and ensure the full implementation.