Researchers at Tehran University of Medical Sciences Target Health Science (Willingness to pay for the social health insurance in Iran)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Week -- Research findings on Health and Medicine are discussed in a new report. According to news originating from Tehran, Iran, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, "The substantial level of out-of-pocket expenditure for health care by the population causes policy makers to draw particular attention to the proposal of a social health insurance for uninsured members of the community. Hence, it is essential to gather reliable information about the amount of Willingness To Pay (WTP) for health insurance."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, "We assessed the WTP for health insurance in Iran in order to suggest an affordable social health insurance. The study sample included 300 household heads in all Iranian provinces. The double bounded dichotomous choice approach was used to elicit the WTP. The average WTP for social health insurance per person per month was 137 000 Rial (5.5 $US). Household heads with higher levels of education, income and those who worked had more WTP for the health insurance. Besides, the WTP increased in direct proportion to the number of insured members of each household and in inverse proportion to the family size. From a policy point of view, the WTP value can be used as a premium in a society. An important finding of this study is that although households' Willingness To Pay is not more than the total insurance premium, households are willing to pay more than the premium they ought to pay for health insurance coverage. That is, total insurance premium is 150 000 Rials and households ought to pay approximately half of this sum."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "This can afford policy makers the ideal opportunity to provide good insurance coverage for medical services according to the need of society."

For more information on this research see: Willingness to pay for the social health insurance in Iran. Global Journal of Health Science, 2014;6(5):154-63 (see also Health and Medicine).

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from S. Nosratnejad, Dept. of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Additional authors for this research include A. Rashidian, M. Mehrara, A. Akbari Sari, G. Mahdavi and M. Moeini.

Keywords for this news article include: Iran, Asia, Tehran, Health and Medicine.

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