Mandatory employer-sponsored health financing scheme for semiformal workers in Bangladesh: An experimental assessment

Atonu Rabbani, Jeenat Mehareen, Imran Ahmed Chowdhury and Malabika Sarker

Social Science & Medicine, 2022, vol. 292, issue C

Abstract: In this study, we present findings from an experimental evaluation of a mandatory employer-sponsored health insurance scheme in Bangladesh. We randomly introduced the scheme to female artisans to understand the impacts on healthcare utilisation, expenditure and subjective well-being using both survey and administrative data. Our findings suggest that the scheme broke even; however, it covered only six percent of the overall health expenditure and 16 percent of the hospitalisation costs. We find higher inpatient care utilisation, particularly among women, and in favour of empanelled hospitals causally associated with the intervention, consistent with the design of the scheme. We do not find significant healthcare savings or improvement in subjective well-being, consistent with low coverage. The findings suggest the scheme to be financially sustainable and it changes the healthcare seeking behaviours as the scheme incentivises. However, meaningful savings and protection against catastrophic health expenditures will require a higher level of coverage.

Keywords: Employer-sponsored health insurance; Health seeking behaviour; Out-of-pocket savings; RCT (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H51 H75 I1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114590

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