Catastrophic and Impoverishing Effects of Health Insurance Financing in Ghana

Henry A. Tagoe, University of Ghana

Healthcare insurance systems are aimed at raising revenue and pooling resources for risk sharing. Out-of-packet payment for healthcare pushes many households into poverty, especially in the Global South where there are insufficient funds for healthcare financing. Multilevel cross-sectional analyses of nationally representative sample survey consisting of 11,778 households, 4,916 female and 4,568 male adult individuals was used to assess coverage, determinants and barriers to healthcare insurance adjusting for socio-demographic factors. About half (49%) of the households had no member insured, 40% and 31% of females and males respectively had no health insurance cover. There is high dependence on family and friends for insurance premium payment. Direct relationships exist between educational attainment, wealth and insurance coverage. The paper argues that how people access and finance healthcare can led to poverty especially in regions where there are limited and insufficient means of financing healthcare both at the individual and national level.