Abstract
BackgroundPremised that health insurance schemes in Africa have only been introduced recently and continue evolving, various concerns have been raised regarding their effectiveness in improving utilisation of orthodox health care and the reduction of out-of-pocket expenditures for their population, particularly women.ObjectiveTo examine the effects of socio-demographics on health insurance subscription among women in Ghana.MethodsThe study draws on the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey. Bivariate descriptive analysis and binary logistic regression were used to analyse the data.ResultsWealth status, age, religion, birth parity, marriage and ecological zone were found to have significantly predicted health insurance subscription among women in reproductive age in Ghana. Urban dwellers, women who are nulliparous, those with no or low levels of education, African traditionalists and the poor were those who largely did not subscribe to the scheme.ConclusionThe findings underscore the need for the National Health Insurance Authority to carry out more education in association with the National Commission for Civic Education and the Information Services Department to recruit more urban dwellers, nulliparous women, those with no or low levels of education, African traditionalists and the poor unto the scheme.
Highlights
Premised that health insurance schemes in Africa have only been introduced recently and continue evolving, various concerns have been raised regarding their effectiveness in improving utilisation of orthodox health care and the reduction of out-of-pocket expenditures for their population, women
It was realised that health insurance subscription was higher for those working than those who were not working at the time of the survey
We found that education, wealth status, age, religion, birth parity, marriage and ecological zone predict health insurance subscription among women in their reproductive ages in Ghana
Summary
Premised that health insurance schemes in Africa have only been introduced recently and continue evolving, various concerns have been raised regarding their effectiveness in improving utilisation of orthodox health care and the reduction of out-of-pocket expenditures for their population, women. A major issue that continues to be of principal prominence in most countries across the globe entails the capacity of their health financing structures to provide adequate financial risk safeguard to all of their population against the costs of health care as they strive to achieve universal health coverage [1, 2]. Out-ofpocket payments are among the main factors which prevent majority of the people in these countries from accessing timely health care [3]. This sometimes results in circumstances whereby enormous financial hurdles come upon entire countries through higher spending on treatment of ailments [4]. One major approach to adequate health financing for many of these countries in efforts to achieve universal health coverage has
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