Leveraging Healthcare Opportunities for Improved Access among Ghanaian Retirees: The Case of Active Aging

Abstract

This paper is a policy brief with targeted interviews of older adults in urban Ghana with recommendations for future healthcare policy. Using a qualitative explorative approach, the scope of the research is to examine opportunities that focus on healthy aging to enhance the healthcare infrastructure in Ghana in preparation for an increased number of older adults. The paper mainly finds that improved healthcare solicitation and the social world of older adults are intricately linked. The healthcare needs of older adults are met through diverse mechanisms—the Pensioners’ Medical Scheme and claim concept. These depict a transformation in healthcare access and delivery with implications for wider healthcare, solidarity, and efficiency. Active ageing strategies therefore facilitate the provision of supplementary healthcare access by seeking health solutions independently, including the creation of awareness about the challenges and the concomitant health resource opportunities for older adults. These tend to the development of an acumen for healthcare-related resilience. I argue that health-related challenges depict opportunities for smarter solutions and mutual growth, further showing that aging is a gain and a human development issue that fosters the emergence of an integrated healthcare system. Crucially, the paper reveals that health-related challenges are used to leverage entry and participation in the healthcare products market and by extension access to quality and holistic healthcare services. This encompasses innovative healthcare infrastructural resources that Ghanaian older adults patronize. These health resources are worth pursuing and may need to be incorporated into the National Policy on Ageing, with envisaged universal coverage in focus.