The Impact of Household Cooking Fuel Choice on Healthcare Expenditure in Ghana

Abstract

This paper investigates household cooking fuel choice and its impact on household healthcare expenditure as well as examining the socio-economic and demographic factors that influence household healthcare expenditure in Ghana. We employed the Tobit regression technique and data from the sixth and seventh round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey conducted in 2012/13 and 2016/17 respectively. Our findings reveal that relative to households using wood, households using charcoal and gas are less likely to spend on healthcare services. The paper also identified the age of household head, household head’s years of education, household head’s illness reporting, household size, household income and region of residence as significant factors influencing healthcare expenditures. Based on the findings, we, recommended policy choices to focus on sustainable healthcare financing, provision of education and awareness as well as the promotion of the use of cleaner fuels including the sustaining and extending the rural LPG promotion programme