Can health financing programmes reduce food insecurity in a developing country?

Raymond Elikplim Kofinti (), Isaac Koomson () and Josephine Baako-Amponsah ()
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Raymond Elikplim Kofinti: University of Cape Coast
Isaac Koomson: The University of Queensland
Josephine Baako-Amponsah: University of Bayreuth

International Journal of Health Economics and Management, 2024, vol. 24, issue 4, No 6, 595-621

Abstract: Abstract Despite the devastating effects of out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures on households’ financial outlays, which potentially stifle household resources needed for food consumption, the health financing program-food insecurity nexus is yet to receive much needed attention in the literature. This study makes a significant contribution by investigating the effect of health financing program, conceptualised as membership of a National Health Insurance Scheme, on household food insecurity using the food insecurity experience scale (FIES) and several quasi-experimental methods. Using data from the seventh round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey, our endogeneity-corrected results indicate that membership of a health financing program can contribute to reduction in household food insecurity. The results are robust to alternative conceptualisations of food insecurity and different quasi-experimental methods. The effect of health financing programme membership on food insecurity is more pronounced among urban and female-headed households. Our findings further point to household savings as an important channel through which membership of health financing program reduces food insecurity.

Keywords: Health financing; Food insecurity; Food insecurity experience scale; Ghana (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 I12 I13 I15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10754-024-09380-5

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