Inching Up and Socio-economic Differentiation: Exploring Self-rated Health of China’s Rural-to-Urban Migrants from 2005 to 2015

Objective

Large-scale rural-to-urban migration in China has stimulated heated discussion about rural migrants’ poor health status. This article reports the first study in China that compares the aggregate-level change in self-rated health of rural migrants between 2005 and 2015, and explores whether the difference, if any, can be explained by their different public health insurance enrollment status due to China’s health reforms in the late 2000s. It also explores whether the aggregate-level change in migrants’ self-rated health differs across different education levels.

Methods

Logistic regression models using pooled repeated cross-sectional data of the 2005 and 2015 China General Social Survey from 2688 rural-to-urban migrants.

Results

Rural migrants’ self-rated health has significantly improved from 2005 to 2015. This can be by explained by their different health insurance enrollment status. However, such improvement is particularly pronounced for migrants with higher education levels.

Conclusion

Whereas China’s recent health reforms have been overall effective in improving rural migrants’ health, these policies might lead to health inequalities within rural migrants in favor of those with higher education levels.