This is the title of an important paper Jonathan Gruber, Mengyun Lin & Junjian Yi. The summary is as follows:
The New Rural Cooperative Medical System (NCMS), introduced in China from 2003 to 2008, provided coverage for 800 million rural Chinese. We combine aggregate mortality data with individual survey data and determine the impact of NCMS from program rollout and regional heterogeneity in rural areas. We found a significant reduction in overall mortality, with the program saving more than one million lives per year at its peak and explaining 78% of the overall increase in life expectancy in China over this period. We use microdata on mortality, other health outcomes, and utilization to confirm these mortality effects.
The subtitle of this article is “China saves one million lives every year“
