The data for this study show that 62% of urban residents are covered by the urban basic medical insurance, while 80% of urbanized rural residents are enrolled in the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme.
Health insurance included three dichotomous variables: urban basic medical insurance, New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme, and commercial health insurance.
At present, China is implementing the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) and urban basic medical insurance system to achieve universal medical insurance coverage.
Those with other, urban basic or free medical insurance were more likely than those with no insurance to seek professional medical services.
On the other hand, the urban basic healthcare insurance program in China is still in a development period, covering only 359.5 million people (52.2% of the urban population, or 27.1% of the total population) in 2008 [ 3].
In this capacity, she was responsible for formulating and negotiating the overall strategies and plans of action for implementation of urban basic services with governmental and non-governmental organizations.
Most other medical insurance and rural cooperative medical schemes have been based on inpatient or serious-illness accounts; but urban basic medical insurance and free medical insurance have been based on both outpatient and inpatient accounts.
It is therefore necessary not only to reduce the urban-rural divide in health insurance coverage, but also to scale up NRCMS as well as the urban basic health insurance so that they can cope with the increasing medical expenditure for chronic diseases.
Generally speaking, the current healthcare insurance system in China falls into three categories, namely, the urban employee basic medical insurance scheme (UEBMI), urban resident basic medical insurance scheme (URBMI), and new rural cooperative medical system (NRCMS).
To provide better financial protection for the Chinese population, China's new medical reform was proposed to link up urban employee basic medical insurance scheme (UEBMI), urban resident basic medical insurance scheme (URBMI), new rural cooperative medical system (NRCMS) and urban and rural medical assistance programs.
