China entered the turning point of the “Preston curve” to rich countries, which brought about the transformation of macro-health fields such as aging population structure, chronic diseases of the disease spectrum, and improvement of social security. Based on Bourdieu’s theory of social practice, this study used structural equation model by data from a joint tracking survey in China and Japan to reveal the mechanism and development trend of health inequality among the elderly before and after the country’s prosperity. The conclusions are as follows: First, the capital, habitus, and health of the elderly have a triangular generative path relationship based on capital. The health inequality among the elderly includes the systematic health difference caused by the direct path of capital acting on health and the indirect path of capital working on health through controlling habits. Second, in the macro-health field before the country’ s prosperity, the health inequality among the elderly mainly came from the direct path of capital. Third, national wealth leads to the transformation of the macro-health field, which has reduces the total amount of health inequality caused by capital. The health inequality caused by the direct path of capital has decreased significantly, while the health inequality caused by the indirect path of capital through controlling habits has increased dramatically. Therefore, in the process of macrohealth field transformation brought about by national affluence, the exogenous effect of capital on health gradually has decreased, while the internal control effect of capital on health gradually has increased, which leads to a fundamental change in the mechanism of health inequality among the elderly, and puts forward new topics for the elimination of health inequality among the elderly in China.
