Willingness to join community based health insurance and its determinants in East Gojjam zone, Northwest Ethiopia

OBJECTIVE: The main purpose of this research was to determine the magnitude of willingness to join to community based health insurance (CBHI) and to identify factors associated with it. RESULTS: A total of 604 study participants responded for the interviews, making the response rate 98.2%. All in all, 492 (81.5%) of the study participant households were willing to join the CBHI scheme. Households which had experience of borrowing for medical expenses within the last 12 months prior to the study were 2.7 times more likely to join CBHI scheme than those who didn’t have borrowed (AOR = 2.65; 95% CI 1.03, 6.83). Female headed households were 2.7 times more likely to take up the scheme compare to male headed households (AOR = 2.74; 95% CI 1.18, 6.37). High proportion of households was willing to join the CBHI scheme in the study area. Educational status of household head, experience of borrowing for medical expenses, sex of household head, household animal asset as measured by tropical livestock unit were factors found to be associated with willingness to take up CBHI scheme.