VALUING HEALTH INSURANCE FOR CHILDREN UNDER FIVE: A CASE STUDY OF RURAL FARMING COMMUNITIES
Shehu Usman Adam, Haruna Mohammed and Fatai Akosile
ABSTRACT
The death rate of children under-five from preventable and treatable diseases is disproportionately high in rural agrarian communities. Meanwhile, health insurance is not accessible to such rural population, increasing their out-of-pocket medical expenses. Surprisingly, the literature remains sparse on alternative ways for such communities to finance their health expenditure. This paper examines the rural households’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for health insurance programme for children under five years old in Gujba local government. Data were analysed using contingent valuation method and the result shows that 60% of the households spent less than ₦1,600 per month in medical expenditure on their children. Meanwhile, sizeable number of the farming households (45.2%) earned an annual farm income of ₦800,000 – ₦1,000,000. The analysis shows that the respondents are willing to pay ₦8,438 to ensure their children have access to health insurance programme. The study also found that insurance premium, income, service satisfaction and numbers of under-five children in the household have significant effect on WTP while marital status, gender, age and education had no statistically significant effect on WTP. The study concludes that having health insurance programme for under-five children in Gujba local government area of Yobe State is feasible since rural farming communities are willing to pay a premium if the service is made available.