Purpose/SignificanceWhether the NCMS program can mitigate poverty among households that fall into poverty for illness in rural China? How is the effect of mitigation? What factors will restrict the role of this health insurance on poverty alleviation? Research on these problems is the premise for further system improvement and goals achievement in NCMS.

Method/ProcessBased on the perspective of survival analysis, using the micro data of China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) from 1991 to 2011, this paper empirically examine the impacts of NCMS on poverty reduction for those who falling into poverty for illness in rural China.

Result/ConclusionThe effects of NCMS on poverty alleviation vary across the system of rural transportation and medical service: the NCMS significantly reduce the health risk of falling into poverty for those participants living in village with better rural transportation and higher level of medical service, while the effects are statistically insignificant for households in the village having poor road status, no bus station, smaller numbers of beds and doctors in local hospital. The effectiveness of NCMS on poverty alleviation was to some extent limited by above external environment factors.