Does Community-based Health Insurance Have Potential Impacts on Direct and Indirect Outcomes? Evidence from Rural Villages, Savannakhet Province, Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Sydavong Thiptaiya

Goto Daisaku

IDEC DP2 Series

Background: As labor-intensive agriculture is a common way of life for rural people, especially in developing countries, good health is often a key input of agriculture production. In addition, selling livestock is a form of coping responses of rural people when facing financial burden. If the community-based health insurance (CBHI) scheme achieves its key function in financial protection and better health promotion, it is assumed to lead to improved outcomes of agriculture production.

Objective: To evaluate potential impacts of the CBHI scheme on rice production and livestock holdings among rural households in Savannakhet Province, Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR).

Method: We employed the technique of inverse probability of treatment weight (IPTW) to correct for imbalances in pre-intervention covariates between treated and untreated samples.

Results: Findings from this study suggests that the CBHI scheme significantly increases rice production per capita and the number of cow holdings among enrolled households, which both are likely to lead to poverty reduction in the long run.

Community-based health insurance

Inverse probability of treatment weight

Rural Lao PDR

Society [ 360 ]

eng

広島大学大学院国際協力研究科