The role of microfinance in reducing poverty-driven healthcare costs: a systematic review

The role of microfinance in reducing poverty-driven healthcare costs: a systematic review

The global health sector has identified poverty-driven healthcare costs that compel poor people to delay or forgo needed medical care. This can lead to disease progression or worse, death. The health sector alone cannot address such a challenge. This study focuses on the role of microfinance in promoting health among marginalised populations by reducing medical care and treatment costs. It aims to provide insights that will guide health promotion practices among MFIs and make a valuable contribution to the healthcare system.

The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature published between 1990 and the present from the databases of EBSCO, EconLit, RePEc, Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, and webpages from the World Health Organization. Using the search terms: microfinance OR microlending OR microcredit OR microfinance, medication costs OR cost of medical care OR cost of health care OR healthcare costs OR medical costs OR health care costs, 817 articles were reviewed, 39 articles qualified for further reading after a title and abstract review. Only seven articles met the criteria and were analysed.

This review suggests that microfinance institutions’ (MFIs’) core competencies in finance and healthcare linkage capabilities can potentially reduce poverty-driven healthcare costs using different schemes of combined microfinance-healthcare models. Although promoting healthcare and sustaining healthcare cost-reduction interventions are challenging for many MFIs, it is imperative to sustain these interventions. More studies are needed to examine more MFIs’ healthcare cost-reduction initiatives, their outcomes, and other sustainable actions towards promoting medical care and treatment adherence.