Awareness and Willingness to Pay for Osun Health Insurance Scheme in Rural Areas of the State

Abstract

Accessing quality health care services at affordable costs with easy mode of payments is a serious problem especially among the already impoverished rural households in Nigeria. This study examined the health status, awareness and willingness to pay (WTP) for Osun Health Insurance Scheme (OHIS) among rural farming households in Osun State.  A three-stage sampling technique was employed to select 583 rural farming households from six (out of thirty) Local Government Areas in the State. The primary data collected with the aid of structured questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a logistic regression model. Majority (61.1%) recorded two morbidities in three months, malaria was the most reported illness (90.6%), radio jingles was the most popular source of awareness about the OHIS (96.1%) and households’ monthly health expenditure was N15,260.72± N6,644.94. The WTP calculated from the single-bounded dichotomous format was N4,170.47 while WTP from response to open-ended CV survey was N1,216.12 per person per month. The explanatory variables that significantly influenced the willingness to pay include the sex, age, and years of schooling of household heads, household size, marital status, awareness of NHIS and OHIS, perceived workability, prefer OHIS, and affordability of the premium. Others are the frequency of sickness, sleeping under insecticides-treated nets (ITNs), a household member suffering ailment, bronchitis/tuberculosis and arthritis. It is concluded that the respondent households are willing to pay more if OHIS could be rendering more quality health services through her accredited healthcare service providers. Proper awareness creation via radio stations and open campaigns by the OHIS team to educate rural households on the need to key into this laudable scheme; and close monitoring of the OHIS-accredited healthcare providers to guarantee quality healthcare services delivery are recommended.