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  • Title: Financing health care in Ghana.
    Author: Asenso-Okyere WK.
    Journal: World Health Forum; 1995; 16(1):86-91. PubMed ID: 7873037.
    Abstract:
    Attempts to recover some government health care expenses through user charges have produced less revenue than hoped. National health insurance offers an attractive alternative, but needs to include features which check cost escalation. Community involvement and traditional medicine can also help to reduce costs. Despite improvements in public health indicators, the population of Ghana still suffers because of a poor health status, especially in rural areas. The largest provider of health services is the Minister of Health (MOH). Although the MOH budget grew 12% from 1986 to 1990, this amounted to only a 2.3% real per capital increase. In July 1985, the government enacted the Hospital Fees Regulation as a cost-sharing measure for the use of MOH facilities. Prices are specified according to service level, treatment location, age, and service. This scheme resulted in an average of less than 10% cost recovery for the MOH and a drop in attendance at health facilities, especially in rural areas. Health care is also provided in Ghana by private medical practitioners, missions, herbalists, and fetish priests. The private practitioners are in business to make money and are concentrated in urban areas. The missions exempt the poor from their fees. The fees of herbalists and fetish priests vary widely. Since the Hospital Fees Regulation legislation has not provided the necessary funds for Ghana's health care system to improve and expand, other mechanisms should be considered such as insurance schemes which depend upon shared costs between insurer and insured, community involvement in the development of health-enhancing facilities, and increased integration of traditional healers into the health care system augmented by improved training opportunities for traditional birth attendants.
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