The Effect of Canceling Medical Consumables Addition on the Medical Expenses of Senile Cataract Patients: Evidence From the Settlement Records of A People's Hospital in Yunnan Province

Based on the medical insurance settlement records of senile cataract patients in a people's hospital in Yunnan Province from 2019 to 2020, this paper adopts the breakpoint regression design to explore the impact of eliminating the reform of medical consumables addition on medical expenses of senile cataract patients. The results show that the reform has reduced the total medical expenses of senile cataract patients to a certain extent, and has greatly changed the cost structure. The costs of consumables, treatment and diagnosis have been significantly reduced, other cost has significantly increased, and service cost has also increased slightly. This shows that the reform of eliminating the addition of medical consumables has a great impact on the medical expenses of senile cataract patients, and also brings a potential crisis of cost growth. So, we should continue to improve the policy design and reduce the cost burden in the future. Multiple interests should be considered to achieve a win-win situation in the policy design. When optimizing the cost structure, we should be alert to the unreasonable growth of other cost. At the same time, we should improve the supporting measures to maximize the effect of the reform.