Abstract The overall goal of this article is to understand the progress in implementing the New Cooperative Medical Scheme, while seeking to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the programme and, in particular, to understand its effects on the incidence of catastrophic medical payment. The study is based on two rounds of nationally representative household survey data collected in 2005 and 2008. The study found that the programme has a very high level of participation, and has increased farmers' use of medical services. However, despite efforts by both central and local governments and high household participation, the programme is only partially achieving its policy objectives. In particular, it has been able to extend to almost all of the rural population, but has failed to cover expenses for catastrophic illness, due to insufficient funds.
Aiming at understanding the regional O3 problem and the impacts of city to rural areas, ambient peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and peroxypropionyl nitrate (PPN) were measured by an on-line instrument at a back garden site (BGS), and a receptor site for urban plume from Guangzhou city. The highest mixing ratios for PAN and PPN were 3.9 and 0.7 ppbv, respectively. PAN and PPN had a similar diurnal pattern as that of O3. As revealed by the slope of the linear regression line between PPN and PAN, anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (AVOCs) dominated photochemical O3 production most of the time. From the correlation between PAN and O3, the regional background level of O3 was derived to be 28 ± 15 ppbv. Two night-time plumes containing elevated PAN and O3 were observed, and the backward-trajectory analysis supported the transport of urban plume from Guangzhou city. Based on the temporal variation of PPN/PAN, two day-time episodes were also selected to discuss the influence from Guangzhou.