Effects of National Health Insurance Scheme on Health Service Provision in Wa Municipality of Ghana

AshEse Journal of Economics

Vol. 4(1), pp. 219-237, January, 2018                                                                                  

ISSN 2396-8966                                                                              

© 2018 AshEse Visionary Limited   

Full Length Research

Effects of National Health Insurance Scheme on Health Service Provision in Wa Municipality of Ghana

Bawuah Alex¹*, Addai Prince², Cobbina Benjamin³, Bensah Aseye Samuel⁴, Owusu Benjamin⁵

¹University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone 611731, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

^2,3,4,5Department of Economics and Entrepreneurship Developments, University For Development Studies, Wa Campus, Upper West Region, Ghana

*Corresponding Author. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received October, 2017; Accepted December, 2017.

Abstract

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was introduced in Ghana to enable every citizen to get access to very affordable and quality healthcare services.The health insurance scheme since its introduction has been well embraced by majority of Ghanaians. Statistically speaking, out of approximately 25 million Ghanaians, 15.6 million people have subscribed to NHIS which is very encouraging. Though, some successes have been chalked such as providing affordable healthcare to the Ghanaian populace, there are still challenges facing the scheme. This paper contains a detail account of the Effects of the National Health Insurance Scheme on health service provision in the Wa Municipality in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Data collection tools such as questionnaires were used to get information regarding why people register for the NHIS, the factors that influences NHIS registration and also as to whether there has been an improvement in terms of quality of services since the introduction of the NHIS. Descriptive statistics, logit model and chi square were used to analyze the data gathered from respondents. The findings from the study shows factors that cause people to enroll in the NHIS of which however, marriage is the most dominant factor. Also, the study reveals that there has been an improvement in the health service provision since the introduction of the NHIS. In conclusion, health insurance has becomebeneficial to the people in the Wa Municipality by helping them to meet their health needs.

Key words: Subscriber, Healthcare, Health Insurance, Wa                                                            

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