Public vs private administration of rural health insurance schemes: a comparative study in Zhejiang of China.

: Since 2003, China has experimented in some of the country's counties with the private administration of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS), a publicly subsidized health insurance scheme for rural populations. Our study compared the effectiveness and efficiency of private vs public administration in four counties in one of China's most affluent provinces in the initial stage of the NCMS's implementation. The study was undertaken in Ningbo city of Zhejiang province. Out of 10 counties in Ningbo, two counties with private administration for the NCMS (Beilun and Ninghai) were compared with two others counties with public administration (Zhenhai and Fenghua), using the following indicators: (1) proportion of enrollees who were compensated for inpatient care; (2) average reimbursement-expense ratio per episode of inpatient care; (3) overall administration cost; (4) enrollee satisfaction. Data from 2004 to 2006 were collected from the local health authorities, hospitals and the contracted insurance companies, supplemented by a randomized household questionnaire survey covering 176 households and 479 household members. In our sample counties, private administration of the NCMS neither reduced transaction costs, nor improved the benefits of enrollees. Enrollees covered by the publicly administered NCMS were more likely to be satisfied with the insurance scheme than those covered by the privately administered NCMS. Experience in the selected counties suggests that private administration of the NCMS did not deliver the hoped-for results. We conclude that caution needs to be exercised in extending private administration of the NCMS

Effects of lattice deformation on magnetic properties of electron-doped La0.8Hf0.2MnO3 thin films

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Substituted hydroxyapatite: a recent development

Hydroxyapatite (HA, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) constitutes the major inorganic hard tissues, such as bone and teeth. Various substitutions in the apatite structure have been developed for a wide range of biomedical applications, such as the bone repair and tissue regenerations; bioactive and/or antibacterial coating for medical devices, biomarkers or carriers in drug/gene delivery systems, and the biomagnetic agents for cancer treatment. In this review, the recent development on substituted HA was overviewed from the aspects of enhanced osteoconductivity and multifunctionality of mono- and multi-cationic and anionic substitutions

Modulation of persistent photoconductivity by electric-field-controlled strain in thin films of La0.39Pr0.24Ca0.37MnO3

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Effects of residual and tunable strain in thin films of La0.7Ba0.3MnO3

published_or_final_versio