Cross-Level Impact of Macro Social Capital on Workers' Health: The Mediating Role of Workers' Status and the Regulating Role of Medical Security System

Abstract

Based on the definition of macro social capital in the field of health, this paper explores the impact of macro social capital on laborers' health, the intermediary role of laborers' status, and the regulatory role of medical security system by using the data of China Labor Force Dynamic Survey (CLDS) in 2016 and hierarchical linear model (HLM). The results show that improving the level of regional economic development and increasing the government total investment in health are helpful to improve the health of local people and further verify that improving personal health depends more on the government health expenditure than on private health expenditure. At the same time, the empirical results show that only the subjective well-being of laborers and the satisfaction of family economic status partially mediate the promotion of macro social capital on health; although macro social capital helps to improve individual health, its influence is declining with the improvement of the type of health insurance. When making policies, we should focus on strengthening the improvement of the overall health level of the society, rather than investing more human and material resources in some special groups. In the future, the government should further increase the government's expenditure on public health, build a livelihood network of basic medical insurance, and promote the health of workers.