台灣在歷經三十多年來經濟蓬勃發展，帶動了國民所得及國民健康水準的提高，因為國民所得的高低可能影響國民對健康的需求，亦會影響醫療服務的供給。倘若以死亡率來衡量國民健康的指標，則我們推估國民所得水準較高及所得分配較平均的地區，國民的死亡率亦較低；另外，全民健康保險依所得高低課徵保費，每個人都享有就醫上機會均等，此種內含所得重分配機制的社會福利政策，很可能會降低所得分配不平均對國民健康的影響。 本研究利用民國65年~93年「中華民國台閩地區人口統計檔」、「中華民國台灣地區家庭收支調查報告」及「死亡登記證明」檔案，建構台灣地區21個縣市死亡率與國民所得的長期追蹤資料（panel data），並透過「固定效果模型」（fixed effect model）分析國民所得對健康的影響。在控制時間效果與各縣市發展差異所導致死亡率之異質性後，實證結果發現，所得確實是影響各年齡層死亡率的重要因素，而所得分配不平均對國民健康的影響並不是那麼顯著，然而全民健保的所得效果對大部分年齡層的國民健康有正面的功效，尤其是那些原先不屬於社會保險之保險對象的年齡層最為顯著。 Taiwan has sustained vigorous economic growth for over 30 years, leading to great enhancement of national income and health. Because the level of national income possibly affects the people’s health demands, it can also affect the medical service supply. If mortality is an index of national health, then we estimate that people have higher national income and more equivalent mean national income in conjunction with lower national mortality. In addition, the National Health Insurance program set monthly premiums based upon personal income/ability to pay. Under the program, each person has equal rights to access medical care. This implies that it is a kind of income reallocation among social welfare policy and it is possible to reduce the influence because of income inequality to the national health. In this paper, I establish the panel data of Taiwan’s various regional mortality and disposable income from 1976 to 2004. I adopted the fixed effect model to control heterogeneity of each region’s development. Under the control of time effects and the variable character of each region, the results prove that personal income level is a vital cause to the regional mortality for all ages; however, no striking results on income inequality demonstrate a clear effect on national health. The National Health Insurance is helpful to most in alleviating income inequality’s effect on health, especially those who have not been covered by any social insurance program before NHI launching.
