Impacts Of The New Cooperative Medical Scheme On Labor Supply

In order to reduce the medical burden of farmers,improve the health level of residents,and solve the problems of difficult and expensive medical treatment,China began to implement the new rural cooperative medical scheme（hereinafter called NCMS）in 2003.Since the implementation of NCMS,the medical treatment rate and the number of beneficiaries of rural residents have increased year by year,the proportion of hospitalizations that require hospitalization due to economic difficulties has decreased year by year,and the level of medical service utilization of rural residents has been continuously improved,which is conducive to improving the health status of rural residents.At the same time,China has entered an aging society,and the degree of aging of rural residents is getting higher and higher,which has an adverse impact on rural labor supply.In this context,as a social security system,can NCMS improve the labor supply of rural residents? If we can improve the labor supply,what mechanism will play a role?The implementation of NCMS is related to ensuring the labor supply of middle-aged and elderly people and the stability of agricultural production development,so it needs in-depth study.Based on the theory of health demand,labor supply and preventive savings,this paper uses the data of the China Health and Nutrition Survey in 2004 and 2006 to conduct an empirical analysis of the following:（1）The influence effect of NCMS on farmers’ agricultural working time and non-agricultural working time is estimated by using the PSM-DID.On this basis,the samples were grouped according to gender,health status,age and income,and the effect of NCMS on the agricultural working time and non-agricultural working time of different groups was estimated,（2）the mediation effect model was used to explore whether NCMS affected agricultural working time and non-agricultural working time through the two mechanisms of income and health.The main research conclusions of this paper include:（1）the positive impact of NCMS on the agricultural working time and non-agricultural working time of farmers,and participation in the NCMS is conducive to increasing the agricultural working time and non-agricultural labor time of farmers;（2）the impact of the new agricultural cooperation on the agricultural working time and non-agricultural labor time of different groups of farmers is heterogeneous.From the perspective of gender,the effect of NCMS on male agricultural working hours is greater than that of female.From the perspective of health,NCMS improves the labor supply of farmers with poor health through it is not significant at the statistical level.In terms of age,NCMS has a significant impact on farmers aged 55 and over.From the perspective of income,NCMS can increase the agricultural labor practice of low-income farmers and increase the non-agricultural labor time of high-income farmers.（3）NCMS affects agricultural working hours through health and income.On this basis,the policy recommendations put forward are as follows:（1）Strengthen targeted publicity and increase participation rate.（2）Establish a financing mechanism linked to urban and rural residents,and give play to the medical supplementary role of commercial insurance.（3）Strengthen the level of protection for the elderly and low-income people.