Table 1 Variable definition

Health_it

Health status of individual i in year t: “Disabled” = 1, “Unhealthy but not disabled” = 2, “Basically healthy” = 3 and “Healthy” = 4

Hospitals_it

The number of qualified hospitals in the city of individual i in year t, divided by 100

Medicare_it

Types of Medicare of individual i in year t: “NCMS” = 1 and “urban employee and residents basic medical insurance” = 0

Gender_it

Gender of individual i: male = 1 and female = 0

Age_it

Age of individual i in year t

Education_it

The Education level of individual i in year t: “did not attend primary school” = 1, “primary school” = 2, “junior high school” = 3, “high school/technical secondary school” = 4, “college” = 5, “undergraduate” = 6 and “postgraduate” = 7

Reasons_it

As the frequency of reasons decreases, the value increases. Floating reasons_it of individual i in year t: “job” = 1, “business” = 2, “following family members” = 3, “marriage” = 4, “move house” = 5, “find relatives and friends” = 6, “take care of parents” = 7, “take care of children” = 8, “birth” = 9, “retire” = 10 and “else” = 11

Marriage_it

The marital status of individual i in year t: “married” = 1 and “unmarried” = 2

Income_it

To mitigate the impact of significant differences between individuals and reduce the magnitude discrepancy with the dependent variable, we use the natural logarithm average monthly household income of individual i in year t [43, 44].In order to exclude the effect of inflation, we use CPI (Consumer Price Index) to obtain real income, the formula is Income_it = nominal income_it/CPI_t

Expenditure_it

To mitigate the impact of significant differences between individuals and reduce the magnitude discrepancy with the dependent variable, we use the natural logarithm average monthly household expenditure of individual i in year t.In order to exclude the effect of inflation, we use CPI (Consumer Price Index) to obtain real income, the formula is Expenditure_it = nominal expenditure_it/CPI_t