X.L., a Bermuda-based insurer, has probably gone furthest by offering to insure clients' profits and net worth, which in effect amounts to insuring their overall risk portfolio.
Beazley, which insures clients against the impact of natural disasters, terrorism and other eventualities, said: "We expect the aggregate effect of this sequence of catastrophes will be to increase rates for our property and reinsurance divisions.
Systematic random sampling was used to recruit insured clients at the health facilities for the survey.
However, most insured clients reported verbal abuse, long waiting times, not being physically examined and discrimination in favor of the uninsured and the rich.
For instance, it was reported by the Ghana News Agency that the Ho Municipal Hospital (in the Volta region, Ghana) had turned away insured clients unless they were ready to pay for the services [26].
The finding runs contrary to that of Bassili et al. Their study in Egypt, found insured clients to have had a significantly higher frequency of physical examination, laboratory investigations and diabetes education compared to their uninsured colleagues [29].
They reported that they had seen insured clients accessing health care services without any payment, even with free feeding for those hospitalized: The insurance helps in the sense that when you are admitted in the hospital it is free, you get everything for free; even the food and the bed free (FGD, uninsured men-Bolgatanga).
Specifically for public hospitals, this means explicitly dealing with the negative attitude of their staff towards insured clients.
According to Ghana's NHIS law (Act 650), health care facilities willing to render services to NHIS insured clients must be accredited by the NHIA for five years on the first account, subsequently renewable every two years.
It is, however, difficult to come to any firm conclusion from the data available that this utilization reflects incentives for providers to preferentially see insured clients or is due to service provider (supplier -induced demand.
