Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study is concerned with health micro insurance (HMI) as a health financing option for Cameroonians striving to access equitable and quality health care. Quite often issues of health care financing have been relegated to the background in the health care narrative. At the fore of contemporary discourse on access to quality health care, are issues of the absence of health infrastructure, lack of qualified medical personnel, and prevalence of corruption in developing countries like Cameroon. As such, this thesis seeks to highlight the important, yet less talked of issue of equitable health care financing. This is all the more crucial in low income countries like Cameroon. Here, there is no state funded social security system for health due to a narrow tax base and the cost of private health insurance is exorbitant. In such a scenario out-of-pocket payments at the point of service, with its catastrophic consequences becomes the only avenue to access quality health care for most residents. In order to remedy the situation the government of Cameroon and other global actors like WHO, ILO and the World Bank have recently been advocating HMI as a medium term solution to the health care financing conundrum. Despite the well documented evidence of the numerous advantages of HMI, Cameroonians are lukewarm in embracing this novel health care financing option. In this regard, I seek to investigate why Cameroonians are not rushing to join the HMI scheme despite its merits. Universal provision of health care remains the ultimate long term goal. As such, I wish to determine whether HMI, militates for or against the long term policy goal of universalism. I employ the mixed methods research approach in the empirical search for answers to these questions. In the process, I take full advantage of the methodological eclecticism offered by mixed methods, navigating in equal measure between the quantitative and qualitative strategies. The theoretical orientation for this research is anchored on what I refer to as, the Social Policy Approach and Community Resource Mobilization Theories. Individually, these theories shed light on various aspects of the three tier structural framework adopted for this study. These structural layers are - out-of-pocket payments, health micro insurance and Universalism. Some findings from this study have been quite surprising like, the absence of the important legal framework, attitudinal challenges presented as financial limitations and others. These findings have informed on the challenges and opportunities in Cameroon's quest for equitable access to quality health care via HMI with a long term Policy objective of universalism.
Author: Princewill Tafor
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Kela, International Labour Organization
OpenAlex ID: W2339339134