Demand for health insurance among women in Ghana: Cross sectional evidence

Access to health insurance among women especially those in the fertility bracket is considered crucial to meeting their health needs and that of their children. The overriding importance of maternal and child access to health care is encapsulated in MDGs 4 and 5 which resonate around the health of children and women. In this paper, we posit that ownership of health insurance among mothers have the potential of reducing the dual problem of child and maternal mortalities. The principal objective of this paper is to investigate the determinants of public health insurance; in particular the impact of supply side on the participation decision of women aged 15-49. Using binary logit model, we find income, age, religion and access to health information via Television and Newspapers as significant predictors for a woman's participation in health insurance. The study also finds that supply side variables particularly low population-per nurse increases the probability of participation while distance to the nearest health facility is inversely related to insurance demand. The policy implications of the findings are discussed.