Faculty Associate Lawrence Were Publishes Paper on Impact of Social Health Insurance on HIV+ Pregnant Women in Kenya

Lawrence Were, a Faculty Associate at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and an Assistant Professor in both the Department of Health Sciences at Sargent College and in the Department of Global Health at the School of Public Health, recently authored an article titled “Effects of social health insurance on access and utilization of obstetric health services: results from HIV+ pregnant women in Kenya.”

In the article, published in the journal BMC Public Health, Prof. Were evaluates the capacity of social health insurance (SHI) to improve healthcare access and outcomes for HIV+ pregnant women in Kenya. He finds that HIV+ pregnant women covered by SHI in Kenya have 12.5% more access to institutional delivery and 19% more access to skilled birth attendants as opposed to the uninsured. The study is the first to empirically confirm the positive impact of SHI access for HIV+ pregnant women, and can help inform policy decisions surrounding health insurance and HIV financing in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2019, Prof. Were authored a paper in the Pardee Center’s Issues in Brief series titled “The Informal Sector and Universal Health Coverage: Crucial Considerations.” In the paper, he analyzed the impact of informal employment on health insurance coverage, focusing specifically on Kenya, where the informal sector accounts for 34 percent of GDP and 74 percent of employment.