Social Health Insurance and the Use of Formal and Informal Care in Developing Countries: Evidence from Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme
研究加纳国家健康保险计划对医疗服务利用的影响，发现保险覆盖增加了正式医疗使用并减少了自付支出，且效果因年龄和财富状况而异。
This paper studies the relationship between the use of formal and informal health care in a developing country setting by examining the introduction of a social health insurance scheme in Ghana. We estimate the effects of gaining coverage on changes in care seeking behaviour and show how these effects differ by age and wealth status. District-level differences in the implementation of the insurance scheme provide exogenous variation in access to insurance and allow us to address issues with selection into coverage. Results indicate that insurance access strongly increased use of formal care and reduced out-of-pocket expenditures on health services.