What is it about?
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) of Ghana is considered an effective tool in dealing with catastrophic out-of-pocket (OOP) payments. In this paper, I explore the incidence of health shocks, pre-NHIS and post-NHIS coping mechanisms employed by households in the event of health shocks that lead to catastrophic OOP payments. The study further investigates the impact of formal health insurance on households' OOP payments and its impact on households' probability of catastrophic payments on health services.
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Why is it important?
Findings from this paper show that the implementation of health insurance in a less developed country may alter the coping mechanisms employed by households, but it does not eliminate them. Moreover, I show that households, especially the extreme poor, are better off having health insurance than without it.
Perspectives
I hope this article makes what people might think is a boring, slightly abstract area like health economics and measuring things like health, kind of interesting and maybe even exciting. Because the way we spend money on health and social care is not just a problem for politicians, managers and researchers to worry about - it is an issue that touches every single human being on this planet in one way or another. By writing this article, I have come to understand that a good health insurance policy, apart from stabilizing income, keeps households from medical impoverishment. More than anything else, and if nothing else, I hope you find this article thought-provoking.
Dr. Samuel Amponsah
Tokyo Kokusai Daigaku
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Incidence of Health Shocks, Formal Health Insurance, and Informal Coping Mechanisms, Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, November 2016, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/15691497-12341412.
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