International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume VI, Issue XII, December 2022|ISSN 2454-6186
Health Insurance Coverage Among Women in Zambia
Evans Sankwa Chikumbe1, Majory Chikumbe2
1School of Economics, University of Cape Town, South Africa
2Department of Economics and Finance, Kwame Nkrumah University, Zambia
Abstract: One of the factors affecting productivity among Zambian women is related to disease burden. Health insurance is meant to reduce costs when faced with costly medical attention. This study investigated factors that affected women in acquiring health insurance in Zambia. It employed the discrete choice models, called; Linear Probability, Logit and Probit Models to estimate the chances of a woman having health insurance. Instrumental variables were used to solve the problem of endogeneity with education. The results show that the level of education was the main driver and increased the probability of having health insurance. Age, marital status, being in a rural setup were all positively related to possessing a medical scheme. Further, women who have good communication in English were more likely to have health insurance.
Keywords: Health insurance, Discrete choice models, Education, Endogeneity, English language
I. INTRODUCTION
One of the major issues hampering productivity in many countries is the disease burden. When the workforce is healthy, it becomes productive. However, health itself, is not costless. Health care providers impose costs for the services provided. Therefore, Health insurance (also known as medical insurance or healthcare insurance) is meant to cover a portion of the cost of a policyholder’s medical costs. How much the insurance covers (and how much is paid through coinsurance, co-pays, and deductibles) depends on the details of the policy, with specific rules and regulations that apply (healthinsurance.org, 2022).
Zambia’s health insurance sector has seen a steady but slow growth in terms of coverage which can be categorised broadly as non-life and life insurance. Life (health) insurance sector only contributes 30% of the total insurance business which makes non-life insurance to be higher in terms of coverage (Zambia Insurance Industry Survey 2019, ZambiaInvest,2022).
Further scrutiny from the Zambia Demographic and Health Survey, 2014 report, showed that men access health insurance more than women. And among the women, notably, 99 per cent of girls aged 15–19 do not have health insurance (Zambia Demographic and health Survey Report, 2014). Further, the maternal mortality rate in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) where Zambia belongs, is quite high as compared to the global average (Leah, 2021). And one of the challenges that aggravates the problem is lack of financial services that could help them in the event of illness. FinScope (2015) Report found that almost 60% of Zambian women and