Government Employees of Bangladesh and their Willingness to Pay for Social Health Insurance

Abstract

Determining the health insurance premium is the most important aspect in providing social health insurance. In measuring the rate, it is needed to calculate the cost of providing the service. One possible methodological tool of calculating the cost is the contingent valuation method for the evaluation of the consumers’ capacity and their willingness to pay for the services. This study applied a Logit model, having binary depended variable with follow up dichotomous choice at different premium levels, to estimate the factors associated to joining the social health insurance scheme. The study found that 80.1 percent of the government employees of Bangladesh wants to pay on average 6.69 percent of their basic salary as social health insurance premium. The result shows that younger peoples are less willing to pay while older people are more willing to pay for social health insurance. The study also revealed that the area of residence and no of visit to doctor play a key role in determining the willingness to pay. This study should help the policymakers to formulate and implement the social health insurance scheme in Bangladesh.