ESS Paper Series No. 24

What is the impact of social health protection on access to health care, health expenditure and impoverishment? A comparative analysis of three African countries

This paper summarizes the results of three individual research projects (Asfaw, 2005; Lamiraud et al., 2005; Xu et al., 2005) measuring the impact of membership in a health insurance scheme in three African countries, namely Kenya, Senegal and South Africa. The first section briefly outlines the health care systems in Kenya, Senegal and South Africa, followed by a short description of the methodology and data used in the research. The last two sections focus on empirical results and policy implications.