Data from University of Antioquia Advance Knowledge in Equity in Health (Whoever wants better healthcare simply pays more: citizens’ perception about voluntary private health insurance in Colombia): Health and Medicine – Equity in Health

2024 JAN 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators discuss new findings in equity in health. According to news originating from the University of Antioquia by NewsRx editors, the research stated, “To explore the perceptions that Colombians have about voluntary private health insurance plans (VPHI) in the health system to identify the tensions that exist between the public and private systems.”

Funders for this research include Ministry of Science, Technology And Innovation of Colombia-minciencias And The University of Antioquia-faculty of Medicine.

Our news reporters obtained a quote from the research from University of Antioquia: “A qualitative case study approach with 46 semi structured interviews of patients, healthcare workers, healthcare administrators, decision-makers, and citizens. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, anonymized, digitally stored, and analyzed following grounded theory guidelines. We developed a paradigmatic matrix that explores how, in a context mediated by both the commodification of health and social stratification, perceptions about the failures in the public health system related to lack of timely care, extensive administrative procedures, and the search for privileged care led to positioning VPHI as a solution to these failures. The interviewees identified three consequences of using VPHI: first, the worsening of problems of timely access to care in the public system; second, higher costs for citizens translated into double payment for technologies and services to which they are entitled; third, the widening of inequity gaps in access to health services between people with similar needs but different payment capacities.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “These findings can help decision makers to understand citizens´ perceptions about the implications that VPHI may have in worsening equity gaps in the Colombian health system. It also shows, how VPHI is perceived as a double payment for services covered within social security plans and suggests that the perceived lack of timely access to care in the public systems and the fear that citizens have for themselves or their family members when using suboptimal healthcare are important drivers to purchase these private insurances.”

For more information on this research see: Whoever wants better healthcare simply pays more: citizens’ perception about voluntary private health insurance in Colombia. International Journal for Equity in Health, 2024,23(1):1-10. (International Journal for Equity in Health - http://www.equityhealthj.com/). The publisher for International Journal for Equity in Health is BMC.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-023-02086-z.

Our news journalists report that more information may be obtained by contacting Daniel Felipe Patino-Lugo, Unit of Evidence and Deliberation for Decision Making - UNED, Faculty of Medicine, University of Antioquia. Additional authors for this research include Claudia Marcela Velez, Diana Patricia Diaz-Hernandez, Olga Francisca Salazar-Blanco, Juan Esteban Gonzalez-Arango, Juan Carlos Velasquez-Correa, Leydi Camila Rodriguez-Corredor, Viviana Maria Velez-Marin, Pamela Velasquez-Salazar.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)