The Impact of Health Insurance on Health Outcomes and Spending of the Elderly: Evidence from China's New Coorperative Medical Scheme

Lingguo Cheng, Hong Liu, Ye Zhang, Ke Shen and Yi Zeng
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Lingguo Cheng: School of Business, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
Ye Zhang: School of Business, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
Ke Shen: School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Yi Zeng: Center for Healthy Aging and Development Studies, National School of Development, Peking University, Beijing, China

No 781, CEMA Working Papers from China Economics and Management Academy, Central University of Finance and Economics

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of China's New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) on health outcomes and healthcare expenditure of the elderly in rural China, using panel data from the 2005 and 2008 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. We employ a strategy that combines propensity score matching with a difference-in-differences approach to address selection bias. Results show that the NCMS has significantly improved the elderly enrollees' activities of daily living and cognitive function but has not led to better self-assessed general health status. We find no significant effect of NCMS on mortality for the previously uninsured elderly in NCMS counties, although there is moderate evidence that it is associated with reduced mortality for the elderly enrollees. We also find that the elderly participants are more likely to get adequate medical services when sick, which provides a good explanation for the benefcial health effects of NCMS. However, there is no evidence that the NCMS has reduced their out-of-pocket spending. Further more, we also find that low-income seniors benefit more from NCMS participation in terms of health outcomes and perceived access to health care, suggesting that the NCMS helps reduce health inequalities among the rural elderly.

Keywords: China; health insurance; health outcome; health spending; the elderly (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-cna and nep-hea
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Journal Article: The Impact of Health Insurance on Health Outcomes and Spending of the Elderly: Evidence from China's New Cooperative Medical Scheme (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cuf:wpaper:781

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