Willingness to join and Pay for Newly Proposed Social Health Insurance Among Teachers in Wolaita Sodo Town Government Educational Institutions, South Ethiopia

Abstract

Back-ground: Cost sharing between beneficiaries and government in the health sector is critical to achieve universal health care coverage, yet only 1.1% of Ethiopians had any kind of insurance and the government spends 1% of its health expenditure on insurance activities. Objective: To assess willingness to join and pay for newly proposed social health insurance scheme among teachers in Wolaita Sodo town government educational institutions, South Ethiopia, 2012. Methods: A cross-sectional Study was conducted during February 5 to March 10, 2012 among 335 teachers in Sodo town government educational institutions. A stratified simple random sampling technique was used. Data analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 statistical software. Binary and multiple logistic regressions were used to estimate the crude and adjusted odds ratios for the willingness to join and pay for social health insurance. Results: A total of 328 teachers in government educational institution were included in the study. One hundred eighty one (55.2 %) of the teachers were never heard of health insurance scheme. However, 234(71.3 %) of the teachers were willing to join the suggested insurance scheme; and 174(74.4 %) of these were willing to pay. Eighty two (47.1 %) of those willing to pay, agreed to contribute greater than or equal to 4 % of their monthly salary. Moreover, the median willingness to pay was 81.66 (±59.653) Ethiopian birr (4.66 United Sate dollars) per person per month. Willingness to join and pay for the scheme was more likely among those who have heard about health insurance, problem of paying medical bills and higher educational status as compared to those who did not have these characteristics. Conclusion and recommendation: More than half of teachers in this study have never heard about health insurance scheme though, about three fourth were willing to pay. Policy maker should market the scheme so that every employee will be conversant with it for successful implementation and introduce strategies to win the trust of government employee in relation to a health insurance system, particularly among those with relatively lower educational status and greater service year.