Perceptions of Households Towards Health Insurance and Their Implication to Enrolment, Kenya.

Abstract

Protection of household from catastrophic health care expenditures associated with direct payments and out-of-pocket payments is a desirable objective of health systems worldwide. A significant proportion of pooled funds financing the Kenya’s health system are mobilized from households through OOP payments and with insurance uptake at a low of 17 percent in the country, the study sought to assess the demand-side perception factors of households towards health insurance, and evaluate the implications associated with the perceptions on voluntary enrolment to health insurance schemes. A key finding was that households were willing to enroll and retain to health insurance schemes if their families and close friends were beneficiaries or would benefit in any way to pay for their health care costs. Also, the notion of everyone paying for their own health care costs was not popular with majority of the respondents. Further analysis revealed that households would consider the plight of the sick, the poor and the most vulnerable in communities, in their consideration for owning a health insurance cover. From the study, recommendations are given to the health insurance providers to revise their approach to their insurance marketing strategies to include well-designed social and family benefits and awareness.