Measurement and explanation of socioeconomic inequality in catastrophic health care expenditure: evidence from the rural areas of Shaanxi Province

Background Policy interventions have been taken to protect households from facing unpredictable economic changes that may cause catastrophe in China. This study aims to estimate the change of overall proportion of households incurring catastrophic health care expenditure (CHE) and its income-related inequality in the rural areas of Shaanxi Province from 2008 to 2013.