Study Findings from M.E. Woode et al Provide New Insights into Health Insurance (Parental health shocks and schooling: The impact of mutual health…

Managed Care Weekly Digest

Study Findings from M.E. Woode et al Provide New Insights into Health Insurance (Parental health shocks and schooling: The impact of mutual health insurance in Rwanda)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Investigators publish new report on Health Insurance. According to news reporting out of Marseille, France, by NewsRx editors, the research stated, "The goal of this study was to look at the educational spill-over effects of health insurance on schooling with a focus on the Rwandan Community Based Health Insurance Programme, the Mutual Health Insurance scheme. Using a two-person general equilibrium overlapping generations model, this paper theoretically analyses the possible effect of health insurance on the relationship between parental health shocks and child schooling."

Financial support for this research came from Investissements d’Avenir (see also Health Insurance).

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research, "Individuals choose whether or not they want to incur a medical cost by seeking care in order to reduce the effect of health shocks on their labour market availability and productivity. The theoretical results show that, health shocks negatively affect schooling irrespective of insurance status. However, if the health shock is severe (incapacitating) or sudden in nature, there is a discernible mitigating effect of health insurance on the negative impact of parental ill health on child schooling. The results are tested empirically using secondary data from the third Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey (EICV) for Rwanda, collected in 2011. A total of 2401 children between the ages of 13 and 18 are used for the analysis. This age group is selected due to the age of compulsory education in Rwanda. Based on average treatment effect on treated we find a statistically significant difference in attendance between children with MHI affiliated parents and those with uninsured parents of about 0.044. The negative effect of a father being severely ill is significant only for uninsured household. For the case of the mother, this effect is felt by female children with uninsured parents only when the illness is sudden. The observed effects are more pronounced for older children. While the father's ill health (sever or sudden) significantly and negatively affects their working hours, health insurance plays appears to increase their working hours."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "The effects of health insurance extend beyond health outcomes."

For more information on this research see: Parental health shocks and schooling: The impact of mutual health insurance in Rwanda. Social Science & Medicine, 2017;173():35-47. Social Science & Medicine can be contacted at: Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, England. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Social Science & Medicine - www.journals.elsevier.com/social-science-and-medicine/)