Community-based health insurance and communities’ scheme requirement compliance in Thehuldere district, northeast Ethiopia: cross-sectional community-based study

BACKGROUND: Community-based health insurance (CBHI) is becoming a prominent and promising concept in tackling financial health care issues confronting the poor rural communities in developing countries. Ethiopia endorsed and constituted CBHI schemes in 13 pilot “woredas” in 2010/11. This study aimed to assess the compliance of the community to CBHI scheme requirements in Thehuledere district, northeast Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 530 respondents between April and June 2015 in Thehuledere District, South Wollo Zone, northeast Ethiopia. A systematic random sampling technique was deployed to select the study participants. A self-administered, structured, pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect the data. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with CBHI compliance. RESULTS: A total of 511 study participants were included in the study. Approximately 77.9% of the study population complied with CBHI requirements: members’ age (AOR = 0.74, 95% CI: 0.62–0.8), premium fee affordability (AOR: 2.66, 95% CI: [1.13–4.42]), members’ occupation (AOR = 0.14, 95% CI: 0.04–0.45), members’ attitude toward CBHI management (AOR = 2.11 [1.14–3.90]), and CBHI members’ knowledge (AOR = 0.24, 95% CI: [0.13–0.42]) were found to be major predictors of community compliance to CBHI requirements. CONCLUSION: CBHI requirement compliance at the early stage was relatively high. We observed that members’ age, premium fee affordability, occupation, attitude, and knowledge were significant predictors. CBHI management’s involvement in awareness creation and training on requirements of the CBHI scheme would contribute to better outcomes and success.