Social Welfare and Demand for Health Care in the Urban Areas of Côte d'Ivoire

This paper analyses the relationship between the demand for health care and that for health insurance by the population of Cote d’Ivoire. A Poisson model is used to estimate the demand for health care and a multinomial logit model for estimating the demand for insurance. The data on which the research was based were taken from a sample of 2,040 households that were interviewed as part of a survey on Recours aux soins et depenses de sante or PSA 92 (Health care use and health expenses, or PSA 92), which was carried out in 1992 in Yopougon, a working class neighbourhood of Abidjan. The results show that the length of the illness appears to be the factor that triggers the use of modern health care. They also indicate that employment and age are important factors in making decisions about which insurance to take. Extending the data collection system to the rural population, or generalizing it to the whole population, and gaining a better definition of the variables “state of health”, “consulting a health service”, “behaviour of the insured person and of the insurance company vis-a-vis health services” should be envisaged to refine the research. All this will lead to a better grasp of the problems of moral hazard and adverse selection in Cote d’Ivoire’s health system as a result of the minimizing costs of the implementation of the expected Universal Health Insurance (AMU).