How Do You Feel? The Effect of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme in China.

Summary During the 2003-2006 period, subjective health status in Chinese rural areas improved. We used a unique household longitudinal survey to analyze how the introduction of a public insurance system has contributed to the change. This program is based on a doubly voluntary process: counties decide to launch, then households decide to subscribe. We disentangle two channels of influence of the insurance: the insurance effect of the coverage and a general equilibrium effect on all residents in the insurance-adopting counties. The empirical findings include, first, a positive extensive margin: individuals feel better about their health status when covered by the NCMS. However, there is no intensive margin: an individual's self-assessed health status does not improve with the number of years enrolled in the program. Second, we find a positive general equilibrium effect of introducing the NCMS program on non-participants in NCMS counties. This effect accumulates over time.