Data from University of Oslo Provide New Insights into Public Health (Healthcare utilization and catastrophic health expenditure in rural Tanzania: does voluntary health insurance matter?): Health and Medicine – Public Health

2023 AUG 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on public health. According to news originating from the University of Oslo by NewsRx editors, the research stated, “Over 150 million people, mostly from low and middle-income countries (LMICs) suffer from catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) every year because of high out-of-pocket (OOP) payments. In Tanzania, OOP payments account for about a quarter of the total health expenditure.”

Financial supporters for this research include The Norwegian Centre For International Cooperation in Education; University of Oslo.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from University of Oslo: “This paper compares healthcare utilization and the incidence of CHE among improved Community Health Fund (iCHF) members and non-members in central Tanzania. A survey was conducted in 722 households in Bahi and Chamwino districts in Dodoma region. CHE was defined as a household health expenditure exceeding 40% of total non-food expenditure (capacity to pay). Concentration index (CI) and logistic regression were used to assess the socioeconomic inequalities in the distribution of healthcare utilization and the association between CHE and iCHF enrollment status, respectively. 50% of the members and 29% of the non-members utilized outpatient care in the previous month, while 19% (members) and 15% (non-members) utilized inpatient care in the previous twelve months. The degree of inequality for utilization of inpatient care was higher (insured, CI = 0.38; noninsured CI = 0.29) than for outpatient care (insured, CI = 0.09; noninsured CI = 0.16). Overall, 15% of the households experienced CHE, however, when disaggregated by enrollment status, the incidence of CHE was 13% and 15% among members and non-members, respectively. The odds of iCHF-members incurring CHE were 0.4 times less compared to non-members (OR = 0.41, 95%CI: 0.27-0.63). The key determinants of CHE were iCHF enrollment status, health status, socioeconomic status, chronic illness, and the utilization of inpatient and outpatient care.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The utilization of healthcare services was higher while the incidence of CHE was lower among households enrolled in the iCHF insurance scheme relative to those not enrolled. More studies are needed to establish the reasons for the relatively high incidence of CHE among iCHF members and the low degree of healthcare utilization among households with low socioeconomic status.”

For more information on this research see: Healthcare utilization and catastrophic health expenditure in rural Tanzania: does voluntary health insurance matter?. BMC Public Health, 2023,23(1):1-13. (BMC Public Health - http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com). The publisher for BMC Public Health is BMC.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16509-7.

Our news editors report that more information may be obtained by contacting Alphoncina Kagaigai, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo. Additional authors for this research include Amani Anaeli, Sverre Grepperud, Amani Thomas Mori.

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