The Social Value of Health Insurance Results from Ghana

Silvia Garcia Mandico, Arndt Reichert and Christoph Strupat

No 9004, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper uses the roll-out of the national health insurance in Ghana to assess the cushioning effect of coverage on the financial consequences of health shocks and resulting changes in coping behaviors. The analysis finds a strong reduction in medical expenditures, preventing households from cutting non-food consumption and causing a decrease in the volume of received remittances as well as the labor supply of healthy adult household members. Moreover, the paper presents evidence that the insurance scheme reduced the likelihood that households experiencing a health shock pulled their children out of school to put them to work. Avoidance of such costly coping mechanisms is potentially an important part of the social value of formal health insurance.

Keywords: Health Care Services Industry; Health Insurance; Health Economics&Finance; Child Labor Law; Labor Standards; Child Labor; Labor Markets; Rural Labor Markets; Pharmaceuticals&Pharmacoeconomics; Pharmaceuticals Industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-09-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-hea and nep-ias
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Related works:
Journal Article: The Social Value of Health Insurance: Results from Ghana (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9004

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