Abstract:
Community based health insurance(CBHI) is the strategic variable in mitigating risk of
direct out of pocket spending in the case of health shocks and indirect economic costs
affecting both individual and national wellbeing. However, household heads
participation in Ethiopia CBHI pilot districts is limited and little is known empirically
about its factors. This study was initiated with the objective of identifying major factors
affecting informal sector workers participation in community based health insurance.
For the purpose of the study a cross sectional data were collected from 396 sample
households and primary data was used. Interview schedule was used to collect primary
data from the sampled households. For the purpose of data analysis, descriptive statistics
and Binary logit econometric model were used. From the Binary logit results, six
variables namely; age of household head’s, household head’s educational status, annual
expenditure, having information about the scheme and being member in local
cooperatives of the household heads were found to have a positively significant effect on
the informal sector workers decision to participate in CBHI while distance from the
nearest health center was found to have a negatively significant effect on the informal
sector workers decision to participate in community based health insurance. Based on
these findings, the researcher recommended that emphasis should be given towards
strengthening formal and non-formal educational opportunities, health sectors and CBHI
agencies in collaboration with other concerned government sectors and
nongovernmental organizations should work to improve households’ income through
implementing different development and income generating strategies. In addition,
working with local cooperatives and diversifying the means of awareness creation about
the scheme were also recommended as critical issues in improving household head’s
participation in community based health insurance.
