The Social Value of Health Insurance: Results from Ghana

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Garcia-Mandico, Silvia; Reichert, Arndt; Strupat, Christoph
• 署名单位: Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD); Erasmus University Rotterdam - Excl Erasmus MC; Erasmus University Rotterdam; Leibniz University Hannover; The World Bank; Deutsches Institut Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104314
• 发表日期: 2021
• 关键词: insurance; social protection; Health shocks; child labor; Ghana

摘要

We use the roll-out of the national health insurance in Ghana to assess the cushioning effect of coverage on the financial consequences of health shocks and resulting changes in coping behaviors. We find a strong reduction in medical expenditures, preventing households from cutting non-food consumption and causing a decrease in the volume of received remittances as well as labor supply of healthy adult household members. Moreover, we present evidence that the insurance scheme reduced the likelihood that households experiencing a health shock pulled their children out of school in order to put them to work. Avoidance of such costly coping mechanisms is potentially an important part of the social value of formal health insurance. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.