Differences in the private cost of health care between providers and satisfaction with services: results for sub-Saharan African countries

Abstract

The issue of whether faith-inspired providers are able to reach the poor depends in part on the cost of the health services provided. This paper relies on recent nationally representative household surveys for sub-Saharan African countries to assess to what extent the cost of healthcare is a major reason for not being satisfied with health services and whether concerns with costs differ between types of providers. The paper also provides estimates of the cost of healthcare in a half dozen countries, again comparing public, private secular, and faith-inspired providers. The results suggest that cost indeed remains a major concern for households. There are differences in out-of-pocket costs for households between providers, with in many cases public providers being cheaper than faith-inspired providers and private secular providers. Yet these differences depend on the country and are not as large as one might have assumed.