This paper investigates the effect of household income per capita on the self-reported health status and health care utisation by comparing the Chinese data from CHARLS (China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study) and Swedish data from SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe). The result shows that the income effect on self-reported health is bigger in China than in Sweden, but its impact on health care use is not as strong as it is on the perceived health. This study also looks at how the access to health care has improved over the three-year health reform plan in China. The result of this analysis indicated the promoted physical access to health care in China as compared to that before the health reform. However, there still is inequality in perceived health status by income as compared to that of Sweden, and the rate of hospital visits is lower in rural areas in China
