Development policy planning in Ghana: The case of health care provision
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Date
2014
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
European Scientific Institute
Abstract
This paper examines the historical development of health policy in
Ghana within the framework of financial, geographical accessibility and the
availability of health care. Historically, health policy has been
urban biased, and largely focused on financial accessibility. Even Nkrumah's
free health care policy could not adequately address the problem of
inadequate health professionals and facilities in the rural areas.The study also
established that poverty is also largely a rural phenomenon.The poor benefit
less from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). This situation
makes the NHIS lack social equity, the very reason for its being. We
recommend that government should expand health facilities in the rural areas,
and introduce attractive incentive packages to attract and retain health
professionals in such areas. There is an urgent need for rigorous criteria
to be developed by the NHIS to identify the very poor for health insurance
premium exemptions.
Description
Keywords
Ghana, Health policy, Poverty, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Health professionals, Rural development, Rural areas
Citation
Alatinga, K. and Williams, J.J. (2014). Development policy planning in Ghana: The case of health care provision. European Scientific Journal, 10(33): 359-382