China has introduced a system of community health centers (CHCs) to provide primary care. To test whether services provided by such centers are more cost-effective than treatment at local higher‐level hospitals, the study compared health outcomes and expenditures for patients with hypertension...

Between 1993 and 2003, the proportion of urban residents without health insurance rose from 27 to 50%. The probability of outpatient visits in the previous 2 weeks dropped from 19.9 to 11.8% in urban areas between 1993 and 2003, and from 16.0 to 13.9% in rural areas. To improve risk-pooling and...