Studies Conducted at Institute for Public Health on Health Insurance Recently Reported (Willingness to pay for National Health Insurance Fund among…

Studies Conducted at Institute for Public Health on Health Insurance Recently Reported (Willingness to pay for National Health Insurance Fund among public servants in Juba City, South Sudan: a contingent evaluation)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Investigators publish new report on Health Insurance. According to news reporting out of Kampala, Uganda, by NewsRx editors, research stated, "This study assessed willingness to pay for National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) among public servants in Juba City. NHIF is the proposed health insurance scheme for South Sudan and aims at achieving universal health coverage for the entire nation's population."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Institute for Public Health, "One compounding issue is that over the years, governments' spending on healthcare has been decreasing from 8.4% of national budget in 2007 to only 2.2% in 2012. A cross-sectional study design using contingent evaluation was employed; data on willingness to pay was collected from 381 randomly selected respondents and 13 purposively selected key informants working for the national, state and Juba County in September 2015. Qualitative data were analysed using conceptual content analysis. T-tests and linear regressions were performed to determine association between WTP for NHIF and independent variables. Up to 381 public servants were interviewed, of which 68% indicated willingness to pay varying percentages of total monthly individual income for NHIF. Over two-thirds (67.8%) of those willing to pay could pay up to 5% of their total monthly income, 22.9% could pay up to 10% and the rest could pay 25%. Over 80% were willing to pay up to 50 SSP (1 USD = 10 SSP) premiums for medical consultation, laboratory services and drugs. The main factors influencing the respondents' decisions were awareness, alternative sources of income, household size, insurance cover and religion. Willingness to pay is mainly influenced by awareness, alternative sources of individual income, household size, insurance cover and religion. Most of the public servants were aware of and willing to pay for NHIF and prefer a premium of up to 5% of total monthly income. There is need to create awareness and reach out to those who do not know about the scheme in addition to a detailed analysis of other stakeholders."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Consideration could be made by the Government of South Sudan to start the scheme at the earliest opportunity since the majority of the respondents were willing to contribute towards it."

For more information on this research see: Willingness to pay for National Health Insurance Fund among public servants in Juba City, South Sudan: a contingent evaluation. International Journal for Equity in Health, 2017;16():9-18. International Journal for Equity in Health can be contacted at: Biomed Central Ltd, 236 Grays Inn Rd, Floor 6, London WC1X 8HL, England. (BioMed Central - www.biomedcentral.com/; International Journal for Equity in Health - www.equityhealthj.com)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting R. Basaza, Int Hlth Sci Univ, Inst Public Hlth & Management, Kampala, Uganda. Additional authors for this research include P.K. Alier, P. Kirabira, D. Ogubi and R.L.L. Lako (see also Health Insurance).

Keywords for this news article include: Kampala, Uganda, Africa, Insurance Companies, Health Insurance, Institute for Public Health.

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