Browsing by Author "Muheki, Charlotte W"

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    The demand for health care services in Nigeria : a nested logit model
    (2000) Ichoku, Hyacinth Ementa; Leibbrandt, Murray; Muheki, Charlotte W
    The main aim of this study is to understand better the factors that influence the health care demand decisions of Nigerian households. The achievement of this objective involves the estimation of the parameters of the demand for health care services in order to understand the nature of health care choices that Nigerian households make under the present depressed economy. These demand parameter estimates are considered valuable inputs into health care policy. Yet, to date, there is neither sufficient information on the factors that shape households' utilization of health care services nor is there sufficient information on the relative importance of health care alternatives available to them. This is the knowledge gap this study helps to fill. Due to the dearth of data on the subject and the costs of collecting such data for the whole country, this study has been limited to a particular geographical area - Nsukka local government.
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    An evaluation of hospital efficiency in Nigeria : a stochastic frontier approach
    (2001) Ikenwilo, Divine; Abraham, Haim; Muheki, Charlotte W
    Some people have argued that there is no reason to expect economic efficiency in a government enterprise because the funds allocated to various ends have to be exhausted to meet targets. In a social and welfarist sense, this argument seems valid if in essence, such earmarked targets, to improve societal welfare, are met. However, in the face of rising hospital costs and insufficient government funds, the issue of effectively allocating government funds to alternative uses becomes paramount. The setting for this research paper is Nigeria. This research work aims at investigating how well financial resources are used in government hospitals in Nigeria. It not only explores the resources employed in hospitals, but also how well these hospitals use minimum resources to achieve maximum outpatient and inpatient output. Hospital cost and expenditure data are collected from 40 government cottage and general hospitals in South East Nigeria (Anambra and Enugu states specifically). The data is collected by means of open-ended questionnaires, which are filled in by relevant administrators in the hospitals visited and also by ministry of health personnel at the state levels. The main research question asked is whether hospitals in this part of the country (and indeed Nigeria as a whole) are allocatively inefficient. A second question as to whether hospitals in Anambra State are more efficient than Enugu State is also posed. The major component of the research involves using the cost and expenditure data to build cost functions for the entire hospitals studied. The main thrust of analysis is the stochastic frontier process, which also incorporates an efficiency effects model. The choice of this model, above all else, is because it provides numerical efficiency estimates and thus provides quantifiable proof of how well poorly Nigerian hospitals fare. It is found in the analysis of the data collected that the hospitals studied are generally inefficient, as 70 percent of them operate at costs above the average permissible cost frontier.
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    Willingness to pay for social health insurance : a case study of Kampala (Uganda)
    (1998) Muheki, Charlotte W; Kirigia, Joses
    In the face of rising health care costs and reductions imposed by budgetary cuts, many governments in developing countries are considering alternatives, other than general tax revenue, to finance their health services. The most popular options, so far adopted, include user fees, community pre-payment schemes, and health insurance. Social Health Insurance has been identified, by policy-makers in Uganda, as a potential source of extra funding for the health sector. As the establishment of the feasibility and viability is a formidable task, this study was restricted to the evaluation of one of the aspects that needs to be investigated before the introduction of social health insurance. The main aim of this study was to explore employees' willingness to pay for Social Health Insurance (SHI), and to identify the factors that influence their willingness to contribute to a SHI scheme. Through the study I was also interested in establishing the extent to which employees' socio-economic characteristics and the SHI attributes affect their willingness to pay.