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Providing Comprehensive Health Insurance Coverage in Rural China: a Critical Appraisal of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme and Ways Forward
Author(s) -
Yang Wei,
Wu Xun
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
global policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1758-5899
pISSN - 1758-5880
DOI - 10.1111/1758-5899.12209
Subject(s) - incentive , government (linguistics) , business , subsidy , public economics , china , health care , health care reform , payment , economic growth , population , health policy , finance , actuarial science , economics , environmental health , medicine , political science , market economy , linguistics , philosophy , law
Health insurance reform for rural China is at a crossroads. The achievements of recent reform initiatives appear remarkable as measured by coverage through the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS); yet there is little evidence that NCMS has made major strides toward improving the financial protection of health care for the rural population. Our assessment suggests that the system may become trapped in a vicious cycle of increases in government subsidies and resulting cost escalations in health care due to strategic responses among health care providers, a factor that hitherto has been largely overlooked. We argue that to improve the sector's overall performance, a thorough reform is needed to change provider payment incentives. Attention should also be directed to strengthening the ability of government agencies to manage health insurance funds effectively through their roles as purchasers and third‐party payers.