Journal of Health and Social Sciences 2019; 4,2:233-252 ORIGINAL ARTICLE IN PUBLIC HEALTH Towards the Universal Health Coverage in Ghana: An exploratory, cross-sectional study on the National Health Insurance Scheme Richard Boateng1, Alfred Edwin Yawson2 Affiliations: 1 PhD, Ghana Institute of Journalism, Accra, Ghana 2 M.D., Associate Professor, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana. Corresponding author: Dr Boateng, Richard. Ghana Institute of Journalism, P.O. Box GP667, Accra, Ghana. E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract Introduction: This study is aimed to analyze the progress towards the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Ghana after the establishment of the ‘National Health Insurance Scheme’ (NHIS), which is a universal health care system created in 2003 to guarantee the right of care for all. Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2017 on 300 adult participants, who were recruited by a convenience random sampling from subscribers of the formal and informal sectors, living in Accra, Ghana. A questionnaire ad hoc was administered to study subscribers’ perceived quality of healthcare services delivered by NHIS and their perception about UHC and two discrete indicators of healthcare system per- formance such as Universal Healthcare Access (UHA) and Financial Risk Protection (FRP). Data analysis was conducted through SPSS 21 and AMOS 21, employing basic analysis such as reliability, principal component and model fit analysis. Additionally, the structural model analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between antecedent and outcomes variables. Results: In our study, positive perception of NHIS services enjoyed during the last year was predictive of FRP (CR = 5.324, P < 0.001), UHA (CR = 3.736, P < 0.001) and UHC (CR = 4.159, P < 0.001) of NHIS.