An old health insurance scheme in China may have saved millions
But there is still plenty of room for improvement
In a country of 1.4bn people, even small improvements in health care can have a big impact. That appears to have been the case with the New Co-operative Medical Scheme (NCMS), a health-insurance plan for rural Chinese that was launched in 2003 and folded into a more comprehensive programme in 2013. Though it is perhaps best known for being stingy, the NCMS saved millions of lives, according to a new working paper by Jonathan Gruber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Junjian Yi of Peking University and Mengyun Lin of Xiamen University.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Coverage that counted”
China September 2nd 2023
From the September 2nd 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from China
An outrage that even China’s supine media has called out
Anger is growing over a form of detention linked to torture and deaths
Why foreign law firms are leaving China
A number of them are in motion to vacate
An initiative so feared that China has stopped saying its name
“Made in China 2025” has been a success, but at what cost?
A pay rise for government workers sparks anger and envy in China
The effort to improve morale has not had the intended effect
A big earthquake causes destruction in Tibet
Dozens are dead, thousands of buildings have been destroyed
Militant Uyghurs in Syria threaten the Chinese government
How much does China have to fear?