By Amy Li and Pengpeng Wang

This study explores the effect of benefit designs and demographic factors on health care utilization and health status of elderly rural enrollees in the New Cooperative Medical Scheme, a rural health insurance program implemented by the Chinese government in 2003. Using the new data from CHARLS pilot study, we find that immediate reimbursement does not have a statistically significant effect on health utilization as suggested in a previous study, but instead on health status. Other policy-related factors neither have a significant effect due to limited data and large standard deviation nor display a consistent effect.

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Advisor: Frank Sloan, Kent Kimbrough | JEL Codes: I13, I18 | Tagged: Health Care Utilization, Health Insurance, Health Status, New Cooperative Medical Scheme, Reimbursement Method, Rural China