Willingness to pay for community health insurance among households in Jinja district

Abstract

Introduction: Community Health Insurance (CHI) is advocated for in many developing countries as one way of addressing the ill effects of direct payments of health care. It is perceived to be relevant in countries in countries that depend a lot on out of pocket payments for health care and where a large part of the population is not engaged in formal employment. Uganda is one such country. Objective: The objective of this study has been to investigate the willingness of households to subscribe to CHI schemes in Jinja district. Methods: A cross-sectional study of households in jinja district using both quantitative and qualitative methods was conducted. Proportiante probability sampling was used to select the 384 households that participated in the study. Results: 81% of the households expressed willingness to enrol in CHI schemes; they were willing to contribute on average ushs, 5.977 per person per year. The willingness was associated with employment of the household head in the formal sector, location of household in rural areas and absence of children in the household. Up to 26% of households had had someone admitted in the year that had preceded the study and up to 77% of them made direct payments for health care whenever someone fell ill. Conclusions and recommendations: Healthcare needs among households were high and majority of the households made payments for health care whenever someone fell ill. Most households were willing to join CHI schemes but were willing to pay only small contributions per person so as to join. The district health team and ministry of health (Uganda) should introduce CHI in jinja district as they identify extra funding sources to supplement the meagre contributions that households are willing to make in order to join.