IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this paper

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

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Lisa Bagnoli
Registered author(s):

    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.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

    File URL: https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/246227/3/2017-03-BAGNOLI-doesnational.pdf
    File Function: Full text for the whole work, or for a work part
    Download Restriction: no

    Paper provided by ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles in its series Working Papers ECARES with number ECARES 2017-03.

    as
    in new window

    Length: 37 p.
    Date of creation: Feb 2017
    Publication status: Published by:
    Handle: RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/246227
    Contact details of provider: Postal:
    Av. F.D., Roosevelt, 39, 1050 Bruxelles

    Phone: (32 2) 650 30 75
    Fax: (32 2) 650 44 75
    Web page: http://difusion.ulb.ac.be

    More information through EDIRC

    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

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    References listed on IDEAS
    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

    as
    in new window


    1. Dow, William H. & Schmeer, Kammi K., 2003. "Health insurance and child mortality in Costa Rica," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 975-986, September.
    2. Chen, Yuyu & Jin, Ginger Zhe, 2012. "Does health insurance coverage lead to better health and educational outcomes? Evidence from rural China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 1-14.
    3. A. Smith, Jeffrey & E. Todd, Petra, 2005. "Does matching overcome LaLonde's critique of nonexperimental estimators?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 305-353.
    4. Wagstaff, Adam & Lindelow, Magnus & Jun, Gao & Ling, Xu & Juncheng, Qian, 2009. "Extending health insurance to the rural population: An impact evaluation of China's new cooperative medical scheme," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 1-19, January.
    5. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra E. Todd, 1997. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 64(4), pages 605-654.
    6. Rodrigo Barros, 2008. "Wealthier But Not Much Healthier: Effects of a Health Insurance Program for the Poor in Mexico," Discussion Papers 09-002, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    7. Marco Caliendo & Sabine Kopeinig, 2008. "Some Practical Guidance For The Implementation Of Propensity Score Matching," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 31-72, 02.
    8. Hong Wang & Winnie Yip & Licheng Zhang & William C. Hsiao, 2009. "The impact of rural mutual health care on health status: evaluation of a social experiment in rural China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(S2), pages 65-82, July.
    9. Rajeev H. Dehejia & Sadek Wahba, 2002. "Propensity Score-Matching Methods For Nonexperimental Causal Studies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 151-161, February.
    10. Agar Brugiavini & Noemi Pace, 2011. "Extending Health Insurance: Effects of the National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana," RSCAS Working Papers 2011/27, European University Institute.
    11. Gajate-Garrido, Gissele & Ahiadeke, Clement, 2015. "The effect of insurance enrollment on maternal and child health care utilization: The case of Ghana," IFPRI discussion papers 1495, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2008. "On the Failure of the Bootstrap for Matching Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 76(6), pages 1537-1557, November.
    13. Binagwaho, Agnes & Hartwig, Renate & Ingeri, Denyse & Makaka, Andrew, 2012. "Mutual health insurance and its contribution to improving child health in Rwanda," Passauer Diskussionspapiere, Volkswirtschaftliche Reihe V-66-12, University of Passau, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    14. Xiaobo Peng & Dalton Conley, 2016. "The implication of health insurance for child development and maternal nutrition: evidence from China," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 17(5), pages 521-534, June.
    15. Stella A. Quimbo & John W. Peabody & Riti Shimkhada & Jhiedon Florentino & Orville Solon, 2011. "Evidence of a causal link between health outcomes, insurance coverage, and a policy to expand access: experimental data from children in the Philippines," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(5), pages 620-630, May.
    16. Yilma, Zelalem & van Kempen, Luuk & de Hoop, Thomas, 2012. "A perverse ‘net’ effect? Health insurance and ex-ante moral hazard in Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 138-147.
    17. Joseph Mensah & Joseph R. Oppong & Christoph M. Schmidt, 2010. "Ghana's national health insurance scheme in the context of the health MDGs: an empirical evaluation using propensity score matching," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(S1), pages 95-106, September.
    18. Jehu-Appiah, Caroline & Aryeetey, Genevieve & Spaan, Ernst & de Hoop, Thomas & Agyepong, Irene & Baltussen, Rob, 2011. "Equity aspects of the National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana: Who is enrolling, who is not and why?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 157-165, January.
    19. Mawuli Gaddah & Alistair Munro, 2011. "The Progressivity Of Health Care Services In Ghana," GRIPS Discussion Papers 11-14, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    The CitEc project has not yet found citations to this item.

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Access and download statistics

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/246227. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Benoit Pauwels)

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.