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Does National Health Insurance Improve Children's Health ?National and Regional Evidence from Ghana

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  • Lisa Bagnoli
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    Abstract

    This paper uses a propensity score matching approach to assess the impact of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on health utilization and health outcomes for children under five years old using a nationally representative Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey from 2011. The results show that even though health insurance is free for children, around half of them are not insured, with the probability of enrollment being significantly affected by many characteristics. Nationally, the insurance increases both health care utilization and the overall health status of children. Nevertheless, there are important discrepancies across regional results suggesting that the largest gains are found in the poorest regions, which correspond to those with the worse average health outcomes. However, some other regions present none or only very limited gains attributable to the insurance.

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    File URL: https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/246227/3/2017-03-BAGNOLI-doesnational.pdf
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    Paper provided by ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles in its series Working Papers ECARES with number ECARES 2017-03.

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    Length: 37 p.
    Date of creation: Feb 2017
    Publication status: Published by:
    Handle: RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/246227
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    Keywords: health insurance; health; health care utilization; children; Ghana; propensity score matching;

    Find related papers by JEL classification:

    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

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