Table 3.

Characteristics of the cooperative medical scheme over time

	1955–1978 CMS	1979–1996 Collapse period	2003-present NCMS
Fund collection	• Voluntary enrolment • Public welfare fund from agricultural cooperatives • Flat-raged premium from enrolees • Revenue of village clinics	Only few areas still had traditional CMS, and some researches or government policy pilots applied other kinds of health insurance in few areas. In most areas of rural China, no any health insurance system.	• Voluntary enrolment • Subsidy from different levels of government • Flat-rated premium from enrolees
Risk pooling	• Pooled at the village brigade level • In few cases, pooled at township level		• Pooled at county level • In some areas, pooled at municipality level
Benefit package	• Based on the fund level, firstly coverage preventive and outpatient services in village clinics; • Some areas partly covered referred hospital outpatient visits and referred hospitalization. • Provider payment is not clear.		• Covering both outpatient and inpatient services in different level of health care facilities (with different co-payment levels) • Catastrophic diseases are also partly covered. • Provider payment methods include fee-for-service, capitation and case-based payments