“新农合”缓解了农村居民的贫困程度吗?

Does the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme Have Alleviated the Poverty of Rural Residents?

为考察新农合对农村居民贫困缓解的效果,使用中国健康营养调查(CHNS)2004年、2006年、2009年和2011年的数据,首先采用两阶段最小二乘法(2SLS)分别对个人收入水平和贫困状况进行多变量回归和分析。然后,为了进一步探讨新农合缓解农村居民贫困程度的作用机制,对健康支出和健康水平分别进行了回归分析。结果表明:参加新农合能显著降低健康支出,并在一定程度上促进农村居民就医。总体上,新农合明显缓解了我国农村居民的贫困程度,但仍未达到理想水平。

Using the pooling data of China Health and Nutrition Survey （CHNS）, this paper analyzes the impacts of the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme （NRCMS） on the poverty of rural residents. Firstly, two-stage least squares regression is used to analyze the individual income level and poverty status respectively. Secondly, in order to explore the mechanism of NRCMS to alleviate the poverty of rural residents, this paper also analyzes the health expenditure and health level respectively. Finally, the results indicated that the participation of NRCMS can significantly reduce health expenditure and, to some degree, promote rural residents to seek medical treatment. Generally, NRCMS has significantly alleviated the poverty of rural residents in China, but it is still inadequate and needs to continue to work hard to improve.