Influence of Health Insurance Financing on Economic Growth In Kenya
1Diana Chepchirchir, 2Dr. Richard Siele, 3Dr. Isaac Kemboi
1,2,3Department of Economics, School of Business and Economics, Moi University, Kenya
https://doi.org/10.47191/jefms/v7-i10-03ABSTRACT:
Economic growth positively impacts population health, providing access to quality healthcare, environmental protection, clean water, and better preventative behavior. However, Kenya's declining growth rate affects health financing, causing many citizens to struggle with access to care due to rising medical costs. This study sought to analyse the influence of health insurance financing on economic growth in kenya. The study was guided by the Solow-Swan Exogenous Growth Model. The study was conducted in Kenya. Data used in study was longitudinal data for twenty two years. The study period was from 2000 to 2022. A descriptive and inferential analysis performed where Auto-Regressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) model was used. Analyzed data were presented in the form of tables and discussions. The health insurance financing indicated a positive and statistically significant (b=0.2935; p = 0.0280.05), implying that one unit increase in health insurance financing could result in 0.2935 units in economic growth in Kenya. The study showed that adjusted R-squared was 0.9271, implying that the model explains approximately 92.71% of the variation in the economic growth in Kenya. The study concluded that, health insurance financing, is positively related to economic growth in the long run in Kenya. The study recommends that there is need for enhancing health insurance financing sources and gradually shifting towards sustainable domestic financing sources.
KEYWORDS:
influence, health insurance financing, economic growth, Kenya
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