Preparing for the future: the impact of long term care insurance on health work life expectancy

This article is based on four periods of data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2013, 2015, 2018, and 2020, and explores in depth the impact of Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) on the Health Work Life Expectancy (HWLE) of middle-aged and elderly individuals. The study adopts Hicks decomposition theory, health improvement effect, and financial security hypothesis as theoretical foundations, and empirically analyzes the effectiveness of LTCI policies by constructing double difference models (DID) and triple difference models (DDD). The study found that the implementation of LTCI policy significantly improved the HWLE of middle-aged and elderly people aged 45 and above. Specifically, the HWLE of the LTCI coverage group increased by an average of 2.3 years compared to other groups. This result has passed a series of robustness tests such as parallel trends, indicating that LTCI not only reduces the risk of early retirement caused by health risks, but also promotes the healthy aging and labor market participation of middle-aged and elderly people by providing psychological and financial security.