WILLINGNESSTOPAYFORSOCIALHEALTHINSURANCEANDITSASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN GOVERBMENT HOSPITALS, MEKELLECITY,NORTHETHIOPIA

Abstract

Introduction:Everyyear,approximately44millionhouseholds,ormorethan150million individuals,throughouttheworldfacecatastrophicexpenditure.Ethiopiaisalsooneof thecountrieswithhighoutofpocketpaymentleadingcatastrophichealthexpenditure. InOrdertoaddresssuchproblem andcreateequitablefinancingmechanism,the governmentofEthiopiacurrentlyintroducedsocialhealthinsurancewiththeoverall objectiveofachievinguniversalhealthcareaccess.Forsuccessfulimplementationof theschemestudyingwillingnesstopayandfactorsaffectingitiscrucial. Objective:Theobjectiveofthestudywastoassesswillingnesstopayforsocialhealth insurance and its associated factors among health professionals in governmental hospitals,Mekellecity,NorthEthiopia. Methodology:An institution based cross-sectionalstudy design was used.Study participantswereselectedusingsystematicrandom sampling.Datawascollectedusing structuredintervieweradministeredquestionnairesandanalyzedusingSPSSversion 20.Bivariateandmultivariatelogisticregressionmodelsat5% levelofsignificanceand oddsratiowith95% CIlevelwasusedtoshowassociationbetweenthedependentand independentvariables. Results:Twohundredfiftyfive(62.5%)ofwerewillingtoparticipateintheSHIscheme. Amongthosewhowerewillingtoparticipateinthescheme189(74.1%)werewillingto pay3 and more percentoftheirmonthlysalary.The median (IQR)ofmaximum willingnesstopaywere3(1)% ofmonthlysalary.Willingnesstopaywassignificantly associatedwithmonthlysalary(AOR=9.49,95% CI[2.51,35.86]),awarenessofsocial healthinsurance(AOR =3.89,95% CI[1.05,14.28]),historyofdifficultycovering medicalbills (AOR = 6.2,95% CI[2.42,15.87]),attitudes towards socialhealth insurance(AOR =7.57,95% CI[3.14,18.21])andperceivedqualityofhealthcare servicesifSHIimplemented(AOR= 2.89,95% CI[1.18,7.07]). Conclusionandrecommendation:Majorityofstudyparticipants(62.5%)werewillingto participateintheSHIschemebutstillactivitiesthatenhanceawarenessandpromote attitudinalchangearerequiredtohavemore