Catastrophic healthcare expenditure (CHE) can plunge households into poverty. Faced with CHE, the question that becomes relevant is how long it will take the household to exit CHE. This paper examines the effect of the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on exit time from CHE. The paper uses the Cox proportional hazard model for the analysis, with data sourced from round six of the Ghana Living Standard Survey and World Development Indicators. The results show that households that spend 40% (20%) of their non-food incomes on healthcare, on average, exit CHE after 10 months and 4 days (13 months and 24 days) being in CHE and those with NHIS coverage exit CHE 19 days (30 days) earlier than those without NHIS coverage. Policy implications arising from this paper include the need to expand NHIS enrolment to mitigate impoverishment due to out-of-pocket healthcare payments. Households with higher risks of severe CHE and longer exit time from CHE should be identified and provided with comprehensive NHIS coverage than those with lower risks.

中文翻译：

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加纳国民健康保险计划对灾难性医疗支出退出时间的影响

灾难性的医疗保健支出 (CHE) 会使家庭陷入贫困。面对 CHE，相关的问题是该家庭需要多长时间才能退出 CHE。本文研究了加纳国家健康保险计划 (NHIS) 对退出 CHE 时间的影响。本文使用 Cox 比例风险模型进行分析，数据来自加纳生活水平调查和世界发展指标的第六轮。结果显示，平均而言，将非食品收入的 40% (20%) 用于医疗保健的家庭在加入 CHE 10 个月零 4 天（13 个月零 24 天）后退出 CHE，而拥有 NHIS 覆盖的家庭退出 CHE比没有 NHIS 承保的人早 19 天（30 天）。本文产生的政策影响包括需要扩大 NHIS 的注册人数，以减轻因自付费用医疗保健费用而导致的贫困。与风险较低的家庭相比，应识别出患有严重 CHE 风险较高且退出 CHE 时间较长的家庭，并为其提供全面的 NHIS 保险。