Social Health Insurance in Africa: Lesson from Ghana

Abstract

This paper discusses social health insurance, healthcare utilization, financial protection and quality of care. The primary purpose of the research is to provide an overview of evidence from up-to-date studies about the effects of Ghana’s Social Health Insurance Scheme on improving access to healthcare, reducing financial hardship, and providing quality care for the insured. Systematization of the literary sources indicates that healthcare costs hinder poor people from accessing healthcare services when needed. Social health insurance is one intervention used to support individuals to access healthcare services irrespective of their socioeconomic status. The methodological basis of this study is a systematic literature review through the searches of PubMed and Google Scholar databases. The author included studies that assessed the effects of SHI on financial protection, access to healthcare and quality of care. He also excluded studies with limitations that will hinder the reliability of the review’s findings. The author screened, extracted data and cross-checked the extracted data. The systematic review presents the results of an empirical analysis, which identified 209 articles and included 14 studies in this review: financial protection (7 studies), healthcare utilization (4 studies) and quality of care (4 studies). Among these studies, one study reported both utilization and financial protection. These studies were published between 2014 and 2020. social health insurance provides strong evidence of a positive impact on improving access to healthcare and protecting insurees against financial hardship. However, most insured people were not satisfied with the quality of care from the social health insurance providers. The results of this review remain relevant to policymakers, especially in developing countries where social insurance is not available for poor and vulnerable people. With the political will and determination, social health insurance is possible in any developing country.