Spatial Accessibility and Social Inequality to Health Care in Urban System: A Case Study in Tianjin, China

Abstract

In recent years, the issue of medical security has received more and more attention from the government, and ensuring people's health is an important task that cannot be ignored. In some areas, medical resources are relatively scarce, and they cannot provide a good guarantee for people's daily medical treatment. In the current paper, the spatial accessibility of medical resources and facilities in Tianjin was analyzed using the Gini coefficients, network technique, and Two-step floating catchment area. The results show that based on 2SFCA analysis, the medical facilities in Tianjin are not evenly distributed. Most of them are concentrated in the south and central parts of the city, while some areas have fewer medical resources. Most of the medical facilities are concentrated in the city center. Based on the network and population analysis, Citizens living in areas with almost complete coverage of medical resources can receive better health care. Some citizens living in an area that can be partially covered by medical resources can accept medical insurance. Living in areas where medical resources are extremely scarce, almost the majority of citizens do not have access to proper health insurance. Based on the Gini coefficients, the results show that the medical resources within 30 km and 20 km are relatively unequal, but the medical resources within 30 km are more equal in the two cases.