Percentage of Ghanaian women covered by health insurance is higher than men, Ghana Demographics 2022
and the Health Survey (GDHS) report revealed.
It said that from the 40 percent reported for women in the 2008 report, health insurance coverage for women in the current 2022 report was 90 percent.
For men, while the 2008 report said 30 percent of them were covered by health insurance, the 2022 GDHS report said 73 percent had health insurance.
A Senior Director of Research at the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mariam Musah, who disclosed this during the second dissemination of the GDHS 2022 Report on HIV and AIDS and Health Insurance in Accra last Tuesday, said the trend in health insurance coverage over the years showed that there had been a significant improvement in health insurance coverage for both men and
women.
Demographic and Health Research
The GDHS is a population-based survey designed to monitor and evaluate progress in the use and management of health care services.
The main objective is to provide policy makers and planners with critical information to facilitate well-informed decision-making within the various units in healthcare.
The 2022 GDHS data were obtained from a nationally representative sample of 18,540 households spread across all 16 administrative
regions and 261 regions of the country.
The survey conducted interviews with 17,933 households. 15,014 women, aged 15 to 49 years and 7,044 men, aged 15 to 59 years.
The survey covered a wide range, including household interviews, assessments of women’s individual reproductive choices and
experiences, including attitudes towards wife beating, as well as health measurements and examinations for children of different age groups.
Health insurance coverage
Providing more details on health insurance coverage between men and women, he said the report showed that for men, coverage
it peaked in the 15- and 19-year-old group and then declined until returning to the 45- to 49-year-old group.
For women, she said, health insurance coverage started slowly and then peaked between the ages of 20 and 40.
age group and then decreased from 55 years onwards.
βWhen you look at the regional distribution among women, the Upper East Region has higher health insurance coverage above the national average, while the Central Region performs below the national average.
Among men, the Northeast Region performs higher than the national average, while the Central Region performs lower than the national average. So we need to know what is happening in the Central Region,” he pointed out.
On how wealth relates to health insurance coverage, Ms Musah said the report said insurance coverage increased with wealth, explaining that this meant people who had money were more likely to have health insurance .
In terms of health insurance use, for men, it peaked for the 45 to 49 age group, while for women, it peaked for the 25 to 29 age group.
For the use of health insurance, using the NHIA card, he said among women, coverage was 32 percent compared to men, who had 23 percent.
In which region used more healthcare services, Ms Musah said from the report, the Upper East Region fared higher than the national
average, while the Northern Region performed well below the national average.
Ms Musah said the report also sought to find out from the respondents interviewed if they made an out-of-pocket payment for a list
of services such as counselling, drugs, diagnosis, admission, among others, normally covered by the NHIA and the report showed that women were more likely to pay out of pocket than men.
βAgain, it will be interesting to know why women make more out-of-pocket payments β is it because they have wider usage? These are questions we need to explore further. Unfortunately, the GDHS report does not provide the reasons behind some of these figures. So it will be good for us to dig deeper to know the reasons behind these numbers,β he said.
As for people making out-of-pocket payments for health care services covered by the NHIA, he said, it was something the NHIA was very aware of and was taking concrete steps to address.
He said the NHIA had established an independent committee at the national, district and regional levels to deal with such issues when they are referred to.
When it was found, upon investigation, that an out-of-pocket payment had indeed been made, she said they would take steps to recover that money for the person involved and go even further to penalize the provider.
Observations
The Deputy Government Statistician of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Dr. Faustina Frempong Danquah, expressed gratitude to all partners including the World Bank, KOICE, UNFPA, UNICEF and the Global Fund for the financial support that will enable to GSS to conduct the survey.
UNAIDS Ghana Director Hector Sucilla Perez encouraged the government and its various stakeholders to seek strategic information initiatives on HIV sustainability to guide national efforts and also on education and health sustainability.
promotion and preventive efforts targeting the diverse populations to achieve the eventual elimination of AIDS in Ghana by 2030.
In a remark at a presentation on HIV and AIDS, the Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Dr. Kyeremeh Atuahene, said the country was doing well on antiretroviral therapy although it had not met its target for the year 2025 ..