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Healthcare Affordability

In: Healthcare and Disease Burden in Africa

Author

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  • Ilha Niohuru

    (Foundation Medicine Inc.)

Abstract

The cost of healthcare is an enormous financial burden for the government, families, and individuals. When talking about paying medical bills, the common financial resource includes personal income and savings, as well as support from the government. Therefore, this chapter investigates insurance coverage, government expenditure on healthcare, and individual affordability, aiming at understanding the financial burden that the patient may bear when seeking medical services. Among the studied countries, only Algeria managed to provide free healthcare through insurance. The other countries tend to have a complete insurance scheme and have the choice of enrolling in private and public insurance. However, issues like public insurance are often underfunded, the claims take too long to process and the insurance is not reinforced, leaving the patients any choice but to cover the medical bills out-of-pocket upfront. Therefore, individual affordability becomes crucial when people make medical decisions. Thus, in the investigation, individual affordability is further broken down into the cost of a single hospital visit and hospitalization, the average income, and the poverty in the country, trying to understand to what extent a patient is likely to have the financial ability to cover the bills.

Suggested Citation

  • Ilha Niohuru, 2023. "Healthcare Affordability," SpringerBriefs in Economics, in: Healthcare and Disease Burden in Africa, chapter 0, pages 105-120, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:spbchp:978-3-031-19719-2_5
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-19719-2_5
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