The interaction of delayed retirement initiative and the multilevel social health insurance system on physical health of older people in China

Abstract

With many social challenges posed by an ageing population, the delayed retirement initiative has received wide attention from policymakers. However, China's current multi-level social health insurance system seems not perfect and not ready for the delayed retirement initiative. The public are generally concerned that the benefits of late retirees cannot be well guaranteed. Using data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) and the chorological design (CHARLS-2015 and -2018 waves), this study finds that (1) late retirement could be beneficial for physical health among older adults; (2) there have disparities between the effects of different social health insurances on physical health among older adults; (3) social health insurances could weaken the benefits of late retirement to physical health among older adults. Results imply that China's current multi-level social medical insurance system may lag behind the proposed delayed retirement initiative and have policy limitations for late retirees.