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Health insurance in Ghana: evaluation of policy holders’ perceptions and factors influencing policy renewal in the Volta region

BACKGROUND: Health insurance is an important mechanism that succors individuals, states and the nation at large. The purpose of this study was to assess individual’s attitude towards health insurance policy and the factors that influence respondents’ decision to renew their health insurance policy w...

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Autores principales: Boateng, Daniel, Awunyor-Vitor, Dadson
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3716631/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23822579
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-12-50
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author Boateng, Daniel
Awunyor-Vitor, Dadson
author_facet Boateng, Daniel
Awunyor-Vitor, Dadson
author_sort Boateng, Daniel
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Health insurance is an important mechanism that succors individuals, states and the nation at large. The purpose of this study was to assess individual’s attitude towards health insurance policy and the factors that influence respondents’ decision to renew their health insurance policy when it expires. METHODS: This cross sectional study was conducted in the Volta region of Ghana. A total of 300 respondents were randomly sampled and interviewed for the study. Data was collected at the household level and analyzed with STATA software. Descriptive statistics was used to assess the demographic characteristics of the respondents while Logistic regression model was used to assess factors that influence respondents’ decision to take up health insurance policy and renew it. RESULTS: The study results indicate that 61.1% of respondents are currently being enrolled in the NHIS, 23.9% had not renewed their insurance after enrollment and 15% had never enrolled. Reasons cited for non-renewal of insurance included poor service quality (58%), lack of money (49%) and taste of other sources of care (23%). The gender, marital status, religion and perception of health status of respondents significantly influenced their decision to enroll and remain in NHIS. CONCLUSION: NHIS has come to stay with clients testifying to its benefits in keeping them strong and healthy. Efforts therefore must be put in by all stakeholders including the community to educate the individuals on the benefits of health insurance to ensure all have optimal access.
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spelling pubmed-37166312013-07-22 Health insurance in Ghana: evaluation of policy holders’ perceptions and factors influencing policy renewal in the Volta region Boateng, Daniel Awunyor-Vitor, Dadson Int J Equity Health Research BACKGROUND: Health insurance is an important mechanism that succors individuals, states and the nation at large. The purpose of this study was to assess individual’s attitude towards health insurance policy and the factors that influence respondents’ decision to renew their health insurance policy when it expires. METHODS: This cross sectional study was conducted in the Volta region of Ghana. A total of 300 respondents were randomly sampled and interviewed for the study. Data was collected at the household level and analyzed with STATA software. Descriptive statistics was used to assess the demographic characteristics of the respondents while Logistic regression model was used to assess factors that influence respondents’ decision to take up health insurance policy and renew it. RESULTS: The study results indicate that 61.1% of respondents are currently being enrolled in the NHIS, 23.9% had not renewed their insurance after enrollment and 15% had never enrolled. Reasons cited for non-renewal of insurance included poor service quality (58%), lack of money (49%) and taste of other sources of care (23%). The gender, marital status, religion and perception of health status of respondents significantly influenced their decision to enroll and remain in NHIS. CONCLUSION: NHIS has come to stay with clients testifying to its benefits in keeping them strong and healthy. Efforts therefore must be put in by all stakeholders including the community to educate the individuals on the benefits of health insurance to ensure all have optimal access. BioMed Central 2013-07-03 /pmc/articles/PMC3716631/ /pubmed/23822579 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-12-50 Text en Copyright © 2013 Boateng and Awunyor-vitor; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Boateng, Daniel
Awunyor-Vitor, Dadson
Health insurance in Ghana: evaluation of policy holders’ perceptions and factors influencing policy renewal in the Volta region
title Health insurance in Ghana: evaluation of policy holders’ perceptions and factors influencing policy renewal in the Volta region
title_full Health insurance in Ghana: evaluation of policy holders’ perceptions and factors influencing policy renewal in the Volta region
title_fullStr Health insurance in Ghana: evaluation of policy holders’ perceptions and factors influencing policy renewal in the Volta region
title_full_unstemmed Health insurance in Ghana: evaluation of policy holders’ perceptions and factors influencing policy renewal in the Volta region
title_short Health insurance in Ghana: evaluation of policy holders’ perceptions and factors influencing policy renewal in the Volta region
title_sort health insurance in ghana: evaluation of policy holders’ perceptions and factors influencing policy renewal in the volta region
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3716631/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23822579
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-12-50
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