Constructing a Basefile for Simulating Kunming's Medical Insurance Scheme of Urban Employees
Focusing on China’s medical insurance scheme which covers all employers and employees in urban areas, this research aims to assess the distributional impacts of medical insurance policies and to predict medical expenses by using microsimulation techniques. As an important part of the project, this article provides a brief overview of China’s medical insurance reform of urban employees and detail the techniques and processes to construct a basefile in 2005 for projecting the medical expenditures for urban employees over the period of 2006-2010. The main data used are administrative medical records of medical insurance participants provided by the Bureau of Labour and Social Security of Kunming, Yunnan Province. Along with the initial analysis for the raw datasets and age processing and adjustment for the individual records, monthly income information was imputed and personal savings accounts were established for each individual record. Important modelling parameters such as death rates and income adjustment factors were constructed. Furthermore, this article identifies medical insurance for government officials by using the combination of logarithm curve fitting and binary discriminant analysis. Based on this basefile, a static microsimulation model can be built to assess the implementation effects of the medical insurance policy and analyse the impact of the medical insurance scheme on urban employees.
Modelling Medical Insurance Scheme in China for Urban Employees and Residents
As the world’s biggest developing country with a large population, building a sound medical care system in China is a very difficult task, in particular the ageing population imposes a heavy burden on medical insurance. It is important to analyse and evaluate the impact of the ongoing medical insurance system on individuals’ health care benefits. This article reviewed the project on modelling medical insurance systems for urban employees and residents. Selecting one of the southwest capital cities in China, the project created two static micro simulation models of the medical insurance system in China. Using three kinds of data in the project for different purposes, the research investigated the sustainability of the urban medical insurance system, involving both urban employed individuals and non-working residents. The first model predicted the medical insurance scheme for urban employees and retirees. With 2006 as the commencement year, the model forecasted the medical service expenses and medical insurance policy settings for five years until 2010. The model for non-working urban residents estimated the potential urban resident population entering the medical insurance scheme, predicted the distributional impacts on families over 2008-2010. It also estimated the medical expenses and evaluated the insurance capacity of the social pool fund. These two models are connected with each other by the methodology of statistical matching.
Preparing for group analytic psychotherapy: meeting the new patient
Preparing for group analytic psychotherapy—the patient and yourself as a therapist—is apparently done in many ways and still invested with much controversy and ambivalence. Some say, they do no selection or assessment at all. The patients or clients are taken from the waiting list in alphabetic order. Other therapists—mainly those working in National Health Services—use several assessment interviews before including patients into short- or long-term groups. Either way, this article revives some research results about assessment and hopes to inspire therapists in their first contact with the patient by presenting some examples from a clinical outpatient practice in a mental health service.