Evaluation of a pilot cooperative medical scheme in rural China: impact on gender patterns of health care utilization and prescription practices.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In 2003 the Chinese government introduced voluntary cooperative medical schemes (CMS), soon to be in place throughout rural China. Families who chose to enroll do so as a single unit and nothing is known about any differential effect of these new schemes on family members. This study evaluates the impact of one pilot CMS in Anhui Province on health care use by girls aged less than 5 years and women 65 years or older, and on the pattern and cost of prescriptions.

Methods

Health care records were extracted covering a 10 year period, before, during and after the pilot CMS in 4 townships, one with the intervention and 3 comparison townships without. The impact of the intervention on the age and gender distribution of patients presenting for health care and on the pres

SUBMITTER: Jiang Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3037865 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature