A Study of Patients' Willingness to Pay for a Basic Outpatient Copayment and Medical Service Quality in Taiwan

Willingness to pay for medical care and its determinants in private health care facilities among Gondar city residents, Northwest Ethiopia: Cross sectional study

Medical care is a type of health service that mainly consists of investigation and diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitative care, and nursing care for the purpose of maintaining the structure or function of the body. A medical care payment is a sort of payment made for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, sickness, or damage, which includes checkups and periodic exams. In low-income nations, out-of-pocket expenditures account for 60 % of overall health spending, compared to 20 % in high-income ones. Willingness to pay is perhaps the highest money that a person is willing to provide to ensure that a particular wellbeing care action is undertaken. Previous research works focused mainly on the patients' willingness to pay but not the amount they can afford. The focus of this study is to determine the level of willingness to pay, the mean amount of willingness to pay for medical care, and its major determinants. A community-based cross-section study was carried out among Gondar city residents from February 2022 to March 2022. The study participants were recruited by systematic random sampling. Four data collectors conducted interviews using a questionnaire. For analysis, the dataset was entered into Epi Info version 7 and transferred to STATA version 14. The descriptive part was summarized using summary statistics like mean, median, and standard deviation. Determinants of willingness to pay were identified using a Tobit regression model with a significance of p-value ≤ 0.05 and confidence interval (CI ≠ 0). Finally, the analyzed data was presented using tables and figures accordingly. The study involved 414 participants, with a response rate of 95.8 %. About 53.62 % of the participants were willing to pay for medical care and the average willingness to pay was 24.17 USD per year. They were more willing to pay if they were still working (β = 19.66), currently married (β = 14.49), had a family history of medical care (β = 25.74), had good knowledge (β = 36.16), had a history of medical illness (β = 16.64), lived a long distance from the health facility (β = 1.98), and had a high wealth index (β = 29.51). The willingness to pay for medical care is below the actual cost. Designing a cost-recovery strategy with multi-tiered programs assigned to the most vulnerable individuals, such as the elderly, less educated, or seriously sick, is a strategic approach of the raising demand for service uptake and accessibility.

Willingness to pay for complementary health insurance in Iran: Contingent valuation approach

BACKGROUND

The Iranian health system is based on social health insurance, which is responsible for providing access to basic health care. In addition to basic treatment insurance, complementary health insurance (CHI) offers introductory packages that include surplus services. We recently observed an increase in Iran's health insurance loss coefficient, from 16.5% to 90.4% in 2017.

AIM

To determine the willingness to pay (WTP) for (CHI).

METHODS

We attempted to determine the WTP for CHI in this study to understand better the potential market and the factors that influence CHI demand. The study surveyed 1023 households in the Kerman Province. A questionnaire developed by the researcher was used in this study, based on the principles of contingent valuation and the bidding game method principles. In each scenario, the factors affecting people's WTP, the demand function, and the effective factors on demand were determined using linear multivariate regression using the ordinary least squares method.

FINDINGS

The average WTP was $ 7.01, $ 12.57, $ 16.19, and $ 18.73 for the first to fourth scenarios, respectively. The demand elasticity for health insurance increased from the first to the fourth scenario, indicating that demand is expandable. On the other hand, it was observed that risk aversion dictates the demand for CHI.

CONCLUSION

Contrary to the insurance claims theory, demand for CHI did not reverse. To this end, insurance fund policymakers can avoid risks and high financial costs by identifying risk-averse individuals.