The effect of Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme on health care utilisation.

OBJECTIVES The study investigates the effect of Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on health care utilisation. METHODS We provide a short history of health insurance in Ghana, and briefly discuss general patterns of enrolment in Ghana as well as in Accra in a first step. In a second step, we use data from the Women's Health Study of Accra wave II to evaluate the effect of insurance on health seeking behaviour using propensity score matching. RESULTS We find that on average individuals enrolled in the insurance scheme are significantly more likely to obtain prescriptions, visit clinics and seek formal health care when sick. CONCLUSION These results suggest that the government's objective to increase access to the formal health care sector through health insurance has at least partially been achieved.