MILK Brief #30: Opportunity costs of a hospitalization - implications for men and women

In this brief, MILK utilizes data from a Client Math study of high-cost hospitalizations in Kenya to investigate how a hospitalization affects paid and unpaid work differently among men and women. Unpaid work is disproportionately performed by women, and accordingly, the opportunity cost of a shock may be higher for a woman than what is commonly recorded. By better understanding how these costs emerge and by whom they are borne, we can better understand the role that insurance plays and the gaps it leaves in ability to cope with risk.

We found that while the opportunity costs of missing paid work are similarly high for both men and women, but the burden of missing unpaid work is substantially higher for women. While insurance may not be effective in covering this additional need directly, the larger nonfinancial burden of illness for women may drive them to have greater need for risk-coping tools than their male counterparts.