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. 2012 Jun;46(2):76-84.

The effect of Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme on health care utilisation

N J Blanchet  1 , G Fink, I Osei-Akoto
Affiliations

The effect of Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme on health care utilisation

N J Blanchet et al. Ghana Med J. 2012 Jun.

Abstract

Objectives: The study investigates the effect of Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on health care utilisation.

Methods: We provide a short history of health insurance in Ghana, and briefly discuss general patterns of enrolment in Ghana as well as in Accra in a first step. In a second step, we use data from the Women's Health Study of Accra wave II to evaluate the effect of insurance on health seeking behaviour using propensity score matching.

Results: We find that on average individuals enrolled in the insurance scheme are significantly more likely to obtain prescriptions, visit clinics and seek formal health care when sick.

Conclusion: These results suggest that the government's objective to increase access to the formal health care sector through health insurance has at least partially been achieved.

Keywords: Health insurance; health care utilisation; treatment differentials.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
NHIS enrolment by educational attainment
Figure 2
Figure 2
NHIS enrolment by self-assessed health
Figure 3
Figure 3
NHIS enrolment by age group
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Waddington CJ, Enyimayew K. A price to pay: The impact of user charges in Ashanti-Akim district, Ghana. Int J Health Plann Manage. 1989;4(1):17–47.
    1. Waddington C, Enyimayew K. A price to pay, part 2: The impact of user charges in the Volta region of Ghana. Int J Health Plann Manage. 1990;5(4):287–312.

MeSH terms

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