Bridging the Gap: Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme and Its Impact on Under-Five Healthcare
Bridging the Gap: Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme and Its Impact on Under-Five Healthcare

Author(s): Martha AMOAKO
Subject(s): Government/Political systems, Health and medicine and law
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Under-five healthcare; healthcare finance; NHIS; health equality; health policy;
Summary/Abstract: Children under-five health care and well-being is critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. An effective and sustained health system drives health care delivery and leverages effective healthcare outcomes, –particularly among mothers and under-five children. This study reviewed Ghana's health financing policy, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), and its consequent impact on early childhood (0-5 month) healthcare outcomes. Drawing upon qualitative fieldwork in Ghana, the study made use of semi-structural interviews with women within the reproductive age (15-50 years) from a diverse working background (including officials from the GHS and selected hospitals) in three selected study areas in the Western Region of Ghana. Institutional data from National Health Insurance Authority, World Bank, and Ghana Health Service were used to complement the interviews. The study revealed that though the national health insurance scheme is positively correlated with good childhood outcome, its implementation does not deliver on its intended purpose of closing the inequality gap in child healthcare. The study recommends that national health insurance coverage be expanded through a partnership with private medical insurance and service providers to enable pregnant women and nursing mothers have easy access to healthcare.

• Details
• Contents