Factors affecting catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment from medical expenses in China: policy implications of universal health insurance
Ye Li, Qunhong Wu, Ling Xu, David Legge, Yanhua Hao, Lijun Gao, Ning Ning & Gang Wan
Volume 90, Number 9, September 2012, 664-671
Table 1. Distribution of household health expenditure across consumption expenditure quintiles, China, 2008
| Indicator | Expenditure quintilea |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | All | |
| Average monthly out-of-pocket health expenditure (US$)b | 6.8 | 11.6 | 15.7 | 22.6 | 50.8 | 21.7 |
| Average capacity to pay (US$)b | 32.0 | 56.6 | 84.2 | 135.2 | 327.6 | 129.2 |
| Out-of-pocket share of monthly household expenditure (%) | 12.7 | 12.0 | 11.6 | 11.6 | 12.3 | 12.1 |
| Capacity to pay out of pocket (%) | 22.2 | 20.5 | 18.5 | 16.6 | 14.9 | 18.5 |
| Households with catastrophic health expenditure (%) | 15.8 | 14.3 | 12.7 | 11.3 | 10.7 | 13.0 |
US$, United States dollars.
a Quintile 1 is the poorest and quintile 5 the wealthiest.
b Based on a currency exchange rate of 6.9451 yuan to US$ 1.00.