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Does free health insurance improve health care use and labour market outcomes of the elderly in Ghana?

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  • Darkwah, Frank

Abstract

Affordable access to health care was a challenge for the elderly in Ghana until the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme in 2003, where the elderly were exempted from premium payments. The study employs household-level data from the Ghana Living Standard Survey to investigate whether exempting the elderly from health insurance premium payments affects healthcare utilisation and labour market outcomes of the elderly in Ghana. The study finds that having health insurance increases the elderly visits to a health facility and the probability of being treated by health professionals. For labour market outcomes, the results indicate that free health insurance increases both the number of hours worked and earnings of the elderly and the size of the increase in earnings in agriculture is slightly larger for females than with males.

Suggested Citation

  • Darkwah, Frank, 2022. "Does free health insurance improve health care use and labour market outcomes of the elderly in Ghana?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joecag:v:23:y:2022:i:c:s2212828x22000500
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2022.100418
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health care use; Labour market outcomes; Health insurance; Elderly;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination

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