Abstract
In the context of China's establishment of a number of public health objectives and the implementation of concrete poverty alleviation policies，this paper investigates the impact of targeted poverty alleviation on the utilisation of medical services by society's most disadvantaged groups. The construction of a theoretical model and the realisation of empirical tests using a difference in differences propensity score-matching approach reveal that the targeted poverty alleviation policy has significantly improved the utilisation level of medical services by the most disadvantaged groups，manifesting itself specifically and simultaneously with the increase in inpatient medical expenses，out-of-hospital medical expenses and annual medical expenses. It is therefore observed that the increased out-of-pocket medical expenses among these groups presents a stimulus effect. After a series of robustness and placebo tests，the conclusions are valid. Further studies have shown that the increase in medical expenditure among the most disadvantaged groups is not due to poor health，but to the improvement of medical treatment capabilities brought about by targeted poverty alleviation policies. The specific mechanisms include the income effect (patient care) and work effect (willingness to visit a doctor) . This means that the targeted poverty alleviation policy on improving the utilisation of medical services will directly contribute to the realisation of the healthy China strategy and health equality. The findings of this paper provide enlightenment for the continued scientific formulation of health poverty alleviation policies following the eradication of absolute poverty by 2020.
Key words: targeted poverty alleviation, medical services utilization, income effect, work effect
