The Effect of New Cooperative Medical Scheme on Health Outcomes and Alleviating Catastrophic Health Expenditure in China: A Systematic Review

Content introduction：

In 2002, the Chinese government launched a new rural health financing policy to provide health insurance (New Cooperative Medical Scheme, NCMS) for its rural population. NCMS, jointly financed by governments and individual households, aims to protect households from impoverishment due to catastrophic health expenditure. In 2011, NCMS covered more than 96% of the rural population. We have systematically searched and reviewed available evidence to estimate the effects of NCMS on health outcomes and on alleviating catastrophic health expenditure. Six bibliographic databases were searched. Quasi-experimental studies regarding the effect of NCMS on health outcomes and catastrophic health expenditure were included. Fifteen studies out of the 6123 studies in the literature fulfilled criteria and were included in this review. The results from these studies suggeted that we still have no clear evidence that NCMS improves the health outcomes and decreases the alleviating catastrophic health expenditure of the China’s rural population. In addition, the heterogeneity among individual studies reminds us that provider payment method reforms, benefit package and information systems around NCMS should be improved in the future.