Objective: The study aimed to explore the effects of medical insurance on household entrepreneurship. Methods: Using "investigation China health and retirement" (CHARLS) data in 2011, the factors of the degree of education, family population, wealth, income and the degree of marketization in the area were selected, The effects of urban employee medical insurance and new cooperative medical insurance on household entrepreneurship were empirically analyzed. Results: The results indicated that the urban families without medical insurance were more likely to have entrepreneurial intention. The urban employee medical insurance had a negative marginal effect to entrepreneurial choices for both urban families and rural families. The new cooperative medical insurance had positive effects on rural household entrepreneurship while it had negative effect on urban household entrepreneurship. Conclusion: The policy needs to focus on universal medical insurance to spur household entrepreneurship.