Impact of Mutual Health Insurance on Urban Households Health Expenses and Vulnerability in Burkina Faso

The objective of this paper is to assess the effects of long-term participation in a mutual health insurance programme on urban households health expenses and vulnerability in Burkina Faso. With data collected in 2013 from a series of interviews with beneficiaries of two mutual health insurance, the study performs a descriptive approach and an econometric technique (propensity score matching). The mutual health insurance program is highly valued, with 90.7% of short term (STB) and 98.3% long-term (LTB) beneficiaries willing to renew their policy insurance. They considered mutual health insurance schemes to be a good mechanism for covering disease risks, as 63.5% of STB and 79.3% of LTB were ready to take out insurance with another company if their mutual insurance no longer offered it. With a higher vulnerability incidence among STB (48.2%) compared to LTB (41.4%), access to mutual health insurance services seems to have a different impact on the well-being of beneficiary households. Indeed, long-term participation in a mutual health insurance has a positive impact on reducing household health expenses (ATT=0.185; t = 2.152**) and no statistically significant effect on their vulnerability (ATT=0.002; t=0.022). More efforts should be made to improve its effect on vulnerability, especially for the poorest.