Since the first pilot NCMSs in 2003, the New Cooperative Medical Scheme has offered catastrophic illness and other medical coverage to rural residents in China. Yet few studies have examined whether the scheme actually improves health status, utilization of health care services, and the burden of health care expenditures. This study employs non-pooled and pooled Ordinary-Least-Squares regression and linear probability models to further examine this issue. I also include an interaction term between the NCMS and distance from a medical facility to determine whether the effect of the NCMS...