Working Paper 225 - Measuring the Impact of Micro-Health Insurance on Healthcare Utilization: A Bayesian Potential Outcomes Approach

Abebe Abebe and Andinet Woldemichael

Working Paper Series from African Development Bank

Abstract: One of the primary reasons for low healthcare utilization rates in low-income countries is lack of affordable health insurance coverage. In recent years, Community-Based Health Insurance programs are widely implemented across developing countries aimed at increasing healthcare utilization and providing financial protection. This study investigates the causal effects of the program on utilization of healthcare services in Rwanda using nonrandomized household survey data. In a Bayesian potential outcomes framework with Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation techniques, we address issues of selection bias on observable and unobservable dimensions. In addition, we address heterogeneity by estimating treatment effects at the individual-level. We find that Community-Based Health Insurance schemes significantly increase the likelihood of utilizing medical consultation and screening services but not utilization of drugs. We also find considerable heterogeneity in treatment effects with married women and under-five children benefiting the most.

Date: 2015-07-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ias and nep-mfd
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Docume ... utcomes_Approach.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:adb:adbwps:2166

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series from African Development Bank African Development Bank Group, Avenue Joseph Anoma, 01 BP 1387 Abidjan 01, Côte d'Ivoire. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Adeleke Oluwole Salami ().