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

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 DPR.
Method: We employed the technique of inverse probability of treatment weight (IPTW) to correct for imbalances in preintervention covariates between treated and untreated samples.
Findings: Findings from this study suggest 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.