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.