Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home Africana Periodical Literature Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Financing Medical Care through Insurance: Policy Lessons from Household- and Community-Level Analysis in Kenya
Authors:Mwabu, GermanoISNI
Wang'ombe, Joseph
Nganda, Benjamin
Gakura, Octavian
Year:2002
Periodical:African Development Review
Volume:14
Issue:1
Period:June
Pages:75-97
Language:English
Geographic term:Kenya
Subjects:health insurance
health financing
Economics and Trade
Development and Technology
Health and Nutrition
External link:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8268.00046/pdf
Abstract:Medical insurance is an important feature of a health care system in which patients pay user charges to get medical treatment. Without insurance, many people could not afford acceptable care in a fee-for-service system. Since health is a merit good, making insurance broadly available in communities is a major policy issue in countries where user fees finance medical treatments. This paper analyses data from facility and household surveys in Kenya in March-April 1998. The survey covered 58 health facilities and 2017 households in four dictricts, one each in Nyanza, Central, Eastern and Coast Provinces. It shows that policies which popularize medical insurance can be inefficient because there exist community and household level factors that inhibit its use. The results further reveal substantial variations in the way the variables that influence the use of insurance affect different population sub-groups. The paper concludes that factors such as place of residence, gender, income, education, community institutions, transaction costs and facility quality that hinder or facilitate use of medical insurance have to be considered when institutionalizing insurance in communities. Bibliogr., note, sum. in English and French.
Views
Cover