OBJECTIVES: With the increasingly aging process, the control of the health care expenditures and alleviating patient economic burden has been a worldwide problem. This study aims to evaluate the effects of the aging on OOP health care expenditures of China.

METHODS: The data of this study were extracted from the China Statistical Yearbook from 2011-2016 and every province was used as an analysis unit. The OOP health care expenditures per capita was selected as the outcome variable and the proportion of elder people (>65 years) was employed to represent the aging. Other covariates included per capita disposable income, juvenile dependency ratio, old-age dependency ratio, the proportion of the urban population, government medical expenditure per capita, education, the coverage of health insurance, sulfur dioxide emissions and the time variable. Panel data mixed linear model and STATA 12.0 were used to estimate the impacts. We also analyzed the impacts in urban and rural areas respectively. One year lag on the proportion of elder people was adopted to deal with endogenous problems.

RESULTS: The OOP health care expenditures per capita was significant positive correlation with the proportion of elder people (0.357, P<0.01). The result in urban areas appeared the same relation between them (0.240, P<0.01), while in rural areas the result was the opposite (-0.213, P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: The OOP health care expenditures per capita were rising by the process of the aging, while the increasing of the coverage of health insurance and the government medical expenditure per capita reduced the OOP, thus relieving the degree. Moreover, the medical demands of the rural residents has not been met fully, which need more attention and might bring more pressure on the expenditures with the process of the aging.