15 _Table 2: Variable definitions_

||China Health & Nutrition Survey (CHNS)|Gansu Survey of Families and Children (GSCF)|World Bank China Health VIII project<br>baseline survey|
|---|---|---|---|
|Out-of-pocket<br>health spending|Total health care expenditures during last month, including<br>expenditures not associated with a provider visit, expenditures<br>associated with first visit to providers (if applicable),<br>expenditures associated with visit to second provider, additional<br>health care expenditures, minus expenditure reimbursed by<br>health insurance (1989 prices). The top half of 1% of<br>observations in each wave have been trimmed.|Sum of expenditure associated with doctor visits<br>and drug purchases during last 12 months.|Annual expenses on drugs, prevention<br>and health care of the family. The top<br>half of 1% of observations in each<br>wave have been trimmed.|
|High out-of-<br>pocket spending<br>Catastrophic out-<br>of-pocket<br>spending|Annualized out-of-pocket spending in excess of 5% of mean per<br>capita income for the wave in question<br>Annualized out-of-pocket spending in excess of 10% of<br>household’s own per capita income for the wave in question|Out-of-pocket spending in excess of 5% of mean<br>per capita income for the wave in question<br>Out-of-pocket spending in excess of 10% of<br>household’s own per capita income for the wave in<br>question|Out-of-pocket spending in excess of<br>5% of mean per capita income<br>Out-of-pocket spending in excess of<br>10% of household’s own per capita<br>income|
|Health insurance|A dummy indicating whether they person has any cover. Also a<br>series of dummies, capturing whether they had any of the<br>following types cover, namely public, worker, dependent, work<br>unit, cooperative, maternal and child health prepayment scheme,<br>immunization prepayment scheme, ‘other’, unknown.|A dummy indicating whether the person has any<br>cover.|A dummy indicating whether the<br>person had any cover. Also dummies,<br>capturing whether they were a member<br>of a CMS or GIS/LIS schemes (people<br>saying they had one of the following:<br>government employee insurance; labor<br>insurance;<br>half<br>labor<br>insurance;<br>medical<br>insurance;<br>coordinated<br>arrangement; others).|
|Self-assessed<br>health|4-point scale|5-point scale|n/a|
|Chronic health|Not used|Not used|A dummy indicating whether the<br>individual has a diagnosed chronic<br>disease.|
|Per capita<br>income|Total household income from all sources divided by number of<br>household members (1989 prices). The bottom half of 1% of<br>observations in each wave have been trimmed.|Income from agriculture, livestock, wages and self-<br>employment. Wage income includes bonuses,<br>subsidies, and the value of in-kind payments.|Household<br>was<br>asked<br>its<br>total<br>household income in the previous year.<br>This was divided by the number of<br>household members to get per capita<br>income. The bottom half of 1% of<br>observations in each wave have been<br>trimmed.|
|Education|Years of education.|Years of education.|No<br>education<br>(omitted<br>category),<br>elementary school, primary middle<br>school,<br>senior<br>middle<br>school,<br>vocational school, junior college.|