The Inequitable Impact of Health Shocks on the Uninsured in Namibia

Emily Gustafsson-Wright, Jacques van der Gaag and Wendy Janssens — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

ABSTRACT

The AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa puts increasing pressure on the buffer capacity of low- and middle-income households without access to health insurance. This paper examines the relationship between health shocks, insurance status and health-seeking behaviour. It also investigates the possible mitigating effects of insurance on income loss and out-of-pocket health expenditure. The study uses a unique dataset based on a random sample of 1769 households and 7343 individuals living in the Greater Windhoek area in Namibia. The survey includes medical testing for HIV infection which allows for the explicit analysis of HIV-related health shocks. We find that the economic consequences of health shocks can be severe for uninsured households even in a country with a relatively well-developed public health care system such as Namibia. The uninsured resort to a variety of coping strategies to deal with the high medical expenses and reductions in income, such as selling assets, taking up credit or receiving financial support from relatives and friends. As HIV-infected individuals increasingly develop AIDS, this will put substantial pressure on the public health care system as well as social support networks. Evidence suggests that private insurance, currently unaffordable to the poor, protects households from the most severe consequences of health shocks.

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Authors

Publication: Oxford Journals

Image Source: © Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance: An Analysis of the Potential Market for New Low-Cost Health Insurance Products in Namibia

Emily Gustafsson-Wright, Jacques van der Gaag and Abay Asfaw — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:18:00 -0400

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes the willingness to pay for health insurance and hence the potential market for new low-cost health insurance product in Namibia, using the double bounded contingent valuation (DBCV) method. The findings suggest that 87 percent of the uninsured respondents are willing to join the proposed health insurance scheme and on average are willing to insure 3.2 individuals (around 90 percent of the average family size). On average respondents are willing to pay NAD 48 per capita per month and respondents in the poorest income quintile are willing to pay up to 11.4 percent of their income. This implies that private voluntary health insurance schemes, in addition to the potential for protecting the poor against the negative financial shock of illness, may be able to serve as a reliable income flow for health care providers in this setting.

Read the full paper on ScienceDirect »

Authors

Publication: ScienceDirect

Brookings: Experts - Emily Gustafsson-Wright

The Inequitable Impact of Health Shocks on the Uninsured in Namibia

Authors

Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance: An Analysis of the Potential Market for New Low-Cost Health Insurance Products in Namibia

Authors