Abstract
BackgroundNational health insurance schemes (NHIS) in developing countries and perhaps in developed countries as well is a considered a pro-poor intervention by helping to bridge the financial burden of access to quality health care. Perceptions of quality of health service could have immense impacts on enrolment. This paper shows how perception of service quality under Ghana’s insurance programme contributes to health insurance subscription.MethodsThe study used the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) dataset. Both descriptive proportions and binary logistic regression techniques were applied to generate results that informed the discussion.ResultsOur results show that a high proportion of females (33 %) and males (35 %) felt that the quality of health provided to holders of the NHIS card was worse. As a result, approximately 30 % of females and 22%who perceived health care as worse by holding an insurance card did not own an insurance policy. While perceptions of differences in quality among females were significantly different (AOR = 0.453 [95 % CI = 0.375, 0.555], among males, the differences in perceptions of quality of health services under the NHIS were independent in the multivariable analysis. Beyond perceptions of quality, being resident in the Upper West region was an important predictor of health insurance ownership for both males and females.ConclusionFor such a social and pro-poor intervention, investing in quality of services to subscribers, especially women who experience enormous health risks in the reproductive period can offer important gains to sustaining the scheme as well as offering affordable health services.
Highlights
National health insurance schemes (NHIS) in developing countries and perhaps in developed countries as well is a considered a pro-poor intervention by helping to bridge the financial burden of access to quality health care
Just about the same pattern noted among females was observed among males; approximately 34 % thought that service under the scheme was better and worse respectively while 31 % of them perceived no differences in service quality between NHIS subscribers and non-card subscribers
This paper examined how health insurance subscription in Ghana is influenced/shaped by perceptions of health service quality when healthcare cost is paid for using NHIS card
Summary
National health insurance schemes (NHIS) in developing countries and perhaps in developed countries as well is a considered a pro-poor intervention by helping to bridge the financial burden of access to quality health care. In a number of countries where health insurance is largely regarded as a pro-poor intervention, enrolment is much lower than projections. Factors such as poverty, perceived poor quality of healthcare to clients on insurance, poor perception about the concept of health insurance, lack of information, high number of people in the informal sector, low levels of education, inefficient institutional coordination, lack of trust, among others have been documented as responsible for the low enrolment onto health insurance in many low-middle income countries [7,8,9,10,11,12]
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