HEALTH INSURANCE AND MEDICAL IMPOVERISHMENT IN RURAL CHINA: EVIDENCE FROM GUIZHOU PROVINCE

Yumei Zhang (), Mateusz Filipski and Kevin Z. Chen ()
Additional contact information
Yumei Zhang: Agricultural Information Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, #12 Zhong Guan Cun Nan Da Jie, Haidian District, Beijing, China, 100081, China
Kevin Z. Chen: International Food Policy Research Institute, #12 Zhong Guan Cun Nan Da Jie, Haidian District, CAAS, Mailbox F16, Beijing, China, 100081, China

The Singapore Economic Review (SER), 2019, vol. 64, issue 03, 727-745

Abstract: We analyze the effects of the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) on poverty, using micro-level household data from 17 villages in a poor area of China’s Guizhou province. A four-wave panel dataset allows us to follow NCMS through its reforms. First-order impact assessments suggest NCMS helps reduce the poverty rate by up to 3 percentage points, and the poverty gap by up to 15 percentage points. It also reduces the contribution of health expenditures to inequality as measured by Gini coefficient. The benefits of NCMS in terms of poverty and inequality appear considerably larger after major reforms in 2009, which expanded benefits and coverage.

Keywords: Health insurance; medical expenditure; poverty; inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S021759081650017X
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:serxxx:v:64:y:2019:i:03:n:s021759081650017x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S021759081650017X

Access Statistics for this article

The Singapore Economic Review (SER) is currently edited by Euston Quah

More articles in The Singapore Economic Review (SER) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().