Leveraging Healthcare Opportunities for Improved Access among Ghanaian Retirees: The Case of Active Aging

Abstract

This paper is a policy brief with targeted interviews of older adults in urban Ghana with recommendations for future healthcare policy. Using qualitative explorative approach, the scope of the research is to examine opportunities that focus on healthy aging in order to enhance healthcare infrastructure in Ghana in preparation for an increased number of older adults. The paper mainly finds that improved healthcare solicitation and the social world of older adults are intricately linked. The healthcare needs of older adults are met through diverse mechanisms-the Pensioners' Medical Scheme and ceragim concept. These depict a transformation in healthcare access and delivery with implications for wider healthcare, solidarity and efficiency. Active ageing strategies therefore facilitate the provision of supplementary healthcare access by seeking health solutions independently, including the creation of awareness about the challenges and the concomitant health resource opportunities for older adults. These have the tendency for the development of an acumen for healthcare-related resilience. I argue that health-related challenges depict opportunities for smarter solutions and mutual growth, further showing that aging is gain and a human development issue that fosters the emergence of an integrated healthcare system. Crucially, the paper reveals that health-related challenges are used to leverage entry and participation in the healthcare products' market and by extension access to quality and holistic healthcare services. This encompasses innovative healthcare infrastructural resources that Ghanaian older adults patronize. These health resources are worth pursuing and may need to be incorporated into the National Policy on Ageing, with envisaged universal coverage in focus.

Utilization of Digital Literacy in Retirement Planning Among Ghanaian Formal and Informal Sector Workers

“…Zaidi (2015) posits that preretirement planning facilitates increased financial security, improve health and well-being including age-friendly infrastructure. Financial security may be reflective of a regular retirement income (Adzawla et al, 2015;Dovie, 2018), whether sufficient or otherwise. Research (e.g., Snyman et al, 2017) has shown that finances are the strongest single predictor of the decision to retire and that people are more likely to leave the workforce if they can financially afford to retire than if they cannot.…”

Assessment of How House Ownership Shapes Health Outcomes in Urban Ghana

“…For instance, van der Geest [29] found that "The NHIS prescribes the same basic healthcare without taking into consideration the tertiary healthcare needs of older people especially in the area of NCDs including retention of urine, incontinence, prostrate and colon cancers" (p. 11). Pensioners' association membership nationwide has benefits which encompass participation in the pensioners' medical scheme, a complement to NHIS, among others [21].…”

“…Such money could be channeled into meeting select survival needs [5]. This is a factor in the relatively low levels of pension incomes in Ghana [21].…”

“…Older adults have a myriad of problems with their living conditions, for example, falls in older age are associated with mobility, reduced quality of life, increased notion of admission into long-term care facilities [22], healthcare expenditure(s) [21,22] and premature deaths. Further, a wide range of diseases affect older adults including increased cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, sensory impairment, gait, falls and related medical conditions.…”

Pension Policy Dimension to Ghanaian Workers’ Housing Needs Provision

“…Such money could be channeled into meeting select survival needs. The essence of this lies in the relatively low levels of pension incomes in Ghana (Dovie, 2018a).…”