China launched the “critical battle against poverty” nationwide in 2012. As its main battlefield, Yunnan province promulgated the “triple medical security” (TMS) policy in 2017. This study, based on the pooled cross-section database of 2015–2020 of registered poor households in Yunnan province, employed the logit model to examine the effect of TMS on the vulnerability as expected poverty (VEP) of these households. It found that increasing the reimbursement rates for overall medical expenses and inpatient expenses and decreasing the proportion of out-of-pocket medical payment to income reduced the VEP; increases in the number of sick people in the family increased its VEP, and although the increase in the reimbursement rate for overall medical expenses or for inpatient expenses partially offset the VEP caused by the increase in the number of chronically ill people in the family, the VEP caused by the increase in the number of critically ill people would increase in the short term with the increase in the reimbursement rate for overall medical expenses or for inpatient expenses. The findings help improve policies concerning the medical security and health of the rural poor population, providing theoretical reference and practical guidance for future research.

Background: In the context of population aging and the scarcity of older adults care resources in rural areas, enhancing the rural older adults well-being has emerged as a critical issue. Social work has gradually been introduced as a professional social service intervention in rural regions; however, the mechanisms through which it can effectively improve older adults well-being remain insufficiently understood. Methods: Based on survey data collected from 577 rural older adults in China, this study categorizes social work into four dimensions: economic development, grassroots governance, social security and order, and public services. It examines the impact of these services on the well-being of rural older adults, while further analyzing the mediating role of social support and the moderating role of self-governance awareness. Results: The findings indicate that all four types of social work significantly enhance the well-being of rural older adults. However, the mediating effect of social support varies across service types: economic development services, social security and order services, and public services primarily improve rural older adults well-being through subjective social support, whereas that effect is not statistically significant with grassroots governance services. Additionally, all four service types can promote rural older adults well-being via objective social support. Self-governance awareness plays a partial moderating role in the relationship between social work effectiveness and rural older adults well-being. A higher level of self-governance awareness strengthens the well-being-enhancing effect of social work, particularly in the domains of economic development and grassroots governance. Furthermore, regional heterogeneity exists in the mechanism through which social work effectiveness impacts rural older adults well-being. Conclusion: These findings not only expand the theoretical pathways underlying the influence of social work effectiveness on rural older adults well-being but also provide a critical empirical basis for advancing rural social work effectiveness in a targeted, category-specific manner and for precisely improving the well-being of rural older populations.