Health Equity and Financial Protection in Ghana
The health equity and financial protection reports are short country-specific volumes that provide a picture of equity and financial protection in the health sectors of low-and middle-income countries. Topics covered include: inequalities in health...
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| Language: | English en_US |
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Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/796641468250508995/Ghana-Health-equity-and-financial-protection-report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27067 |
| Summary: | The health equity and financial
protection reports are short country-specific volumes that
provide a picture of equity and financial protection in the
health sectors of low-and middle-income countries. Topics
covered include: inequalities in health outcomes, health
behavior and health care utilization; benefit incidence
analysis; financial protection; and the progressivity of
health care financing. Ghana's government is committed
to improving equity and financial protection in the health
sector. In 2005, the Government of Ghana amended its growth
and poverty reduction strategy report to include a new
target in the country's development: to reach middle
income status by the year 2015 (Republic of Ghana 2005).
Ghana's Minister of health has called attention to the
role that health plays in economic development and has
placed equity in both access and delivery of health services
as a top priority for reaching middle income status
(Ministry of health 2007). Ghana spends 8.1 per cent (2009)
of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health. This is
greater than the spending levels in other lower
middle-income countries in Africa, which spend an average of
5.8 per cent (2009) of their GDP on health. Ghana provides
free health services for certain vulnerable groups, such as
children under five, people over 70, and pregnant women. In
addition, immunization and services to combat certain
communicable diseases are provided free of charge. |
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