TY - JOUR
T1 - Global Social Welfare and Social Policy Debates
T2 - Ghana’s Health Insurance Scheme Promotion of the Well-Being of Vulnerable Groups
AU - Kipo-Sunyehzi, Daniel Dramani
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This article analyses social welfare, social policy with individualist and collectivist theoretical perspectives. It discusses the well-being of vulnerable groups and their access to social services including healthcare in the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Ghana. The aim is to find out the extent of vulnerable groups enrollment and if their welfare and well-being have improved in the implementation of Ghana’s health insurance scheme. Also, it examines whether NHIS is a pro-poor social intervention program or not. Data sources include census data, documents from health insurance authority, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, direct observations at social service delivery points. Purposive, cluster and snowball sampling techniques are used to select participants. The sample size is 107 participants with 12 months of intensive data collection in three phases from 2012, 2013 and ended on October 2014. Results show more vulnerable groups are enrolled in NHIS compared with contributors. This suggests people who do not pay annual premiums constituted most health insurance subscribers. Also, the results show health insurance covered 38% of Ghana’s population for the 10 years of implementation of NHIS (2004–2013). Despite the progressive increase in coverage of NHIS, there are still some implementation challenges. The research found certain behaviors, practices, and attitudes of some social service providers as inhibiting subscribers’ enrollment. Future research may focus on social intervention programs for vulnerable groups across states.
AB - This article analyses social welfare, social policy with individualist and collectivist theoretical perspectives. It discusses the well-being of vulnerable groups and their access to social services including healthcare in the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Ghana. The aim is to find out the extent of vulnerable groups enrollment and if their welfare and well-being have improved in the implementation of Ghana’s health insurance scheme. Also, it examines whether NHIS is a pro-poor social intervention program or not. Data sources include census data, documents from health insurance authority, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, direct observations at social service delivery points. Purposive, cluster and snowball sampling techniques are used to select participants. The sample size is 107 participants with 12 months of intensive data collection in three phases from 2012, 2013 and ended on October 2014. Results show more vulnerable groups are enrolled in NHIS compared with contributors. This suggests people who do not pay annual premiums constituted most health insurance subscribers. Also, the results show health insurance covered 38% of Ghana’s population for the 10 years of implementation of NHIS (2004–2013). Despite the progressive increase in coverage of NHIS, there are still some implementation challenges. The research found certain behaviors, practices, and attitudes of some social service providers as inhibiting subscribers’ enrollment. Future research may focus on social intervention programs for vulnerable groups across states.
KW - Health insurance scheme
KW - social policy
KW - social services
KW - social welfare
KW - vulnerable groups
KW - well-being
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078429355&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01488376.2020.1716919
DO - 10.1080/01488376.2020.1716919
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85078429355
SN - 0148-8376
VL - 47
SP - 73
EP - 87
JO - Journal of Social Service Research
JF - Journal of Social Service Research
IS - 1
ER -