University of Ghana Reports Findings in Health Insurance (Perceptions of healthcare quality in Ghana: Does health insurance status matter?)

Managed Care Weekly Digest

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- New research on Health Insurance is the subject of a report. According to news reporting out of Accra, Ghana, by NewsRx editors, research stated, "This study's objective is to provide an alternative explanation for the low enrolment in health insurance in Ghana by analysing differences in perceptions between the insured and uninsured of the non-technical quality of healthcare. It further explores the association between insurance status and perception of healthcare quality to ascertain whether insurance status matters in the perception of healthcare quality."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Ghana, "Data from a survey of 1,903 households living in the catchment area of 64 health centres were used for the analysis. Two sample independent t-tests were employed to compare the average perceptions of the insured and uninsured on seven indicators of non-technical quality of healthcare. A generalised ordered logit regression, controlling for socio-economic characteristics and clustering at the health facility level, tested the association between insurance status and perceived quality of healthcare. The perceptions of the insured were found to be significantly more negative than the uninsured and those of the previously insured were significantly more negative than the never insured. Being insured was associated with a significantly lower perception of healthcare quality. Thus, once people are insured, they tend to perceive the quality of healthcare they receive as poor compared to those without insurance. This study demonstrated that health insurance status matters in the perceptions of healthcare quality. The findings also imply that perceptions of healthcare quality may be shaped by individual experiences at the health facilities, where the insured and uninsured may be treated differently. Health insurance then becomes less attractive due to the poor perception of the healthcare quality provided to individuals with insurance, resulting in low demand for health insurance in Ghana."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Policy makers in Ghana should consider redesigning, reorganizing, and reengineering the National Healthcare Insurance Scheme to ensure the provision of better quality healthcare for both the insured and uninsured."

For more information on this research see: Perceptions of healthcare quality in Ghana: Does health insurance status matter? Plos One, 2018;13(1):e0190911. (Public Library of Science - www.plos.org; Plos One - www.plosone.org)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting S.K.O. Duku, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana. Additional authors for this research include E. Nketiah-Amponsah, W. Janssens and M. Pradhan (see also Health Insurance).

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190911. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Keywords for this news article include: Accra, Ghana, Africa, Health Insurance, Health and Medicine.