Rural Medical Insurance and Health Equity for the Rural Elderly: Based on China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

As China's aging population gradually rises, the health issues of the elderly have attracted public attention. Improving health equity for the rural elderly is of great practical significance for implementing the Healthy China Strategy. The study leverages data obtained from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2020 to integrate both the health level and the utilization of healthcare services into the research framework of health equity. Subsequently, this paper uses structural equation modeling to explore which factors affect the participation in rural medical insurance, whether rural medical insurance has a positive impact on the health equity of rural elderly people, and how rural medical insurance works through a path diagram. The result shows that rural medical insurance has a positive impact on the health equity of the elderly in terms of health level and medical and health service utilization level. However, factors such as age, living with partner, education level and income remain important, which affect the participation of rural medical insurance and thus health equity. The moderating effect of rural medical insurance is limited.