Comparative Study on The Healthcare Seeking Practices of Insured and Uninsured Residents of Lusaka
Loading...
Date
2022
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Health insurance is a type of insurance that covers medical expenses that arise due to an illness. These costs can be related to hospitalization costs, costs of medicines or doctor consultation fees. Due to differences in seeking practices it has led to health seeking disparities among citizens that are medically insured and those that are not especially in the effort of Zambia is trying to achieve health for all by 2030. This study aimed to understand the differences in patients seeking health care services, and also ascertain if there were differences in health seeking practices between medically health insured personals and non-medically insured persons. In addition, to determine whether moral hazard is present among medically insured personals and if moral hazard is present from the health facility when somebody is medically insured. A descriptive analytical study was conducted among 116 participants who sought medical care from south point hospital. The primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire and was analysed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) and association of factors was tested using the chi-square test at 5% significance level. The results showed minimal differences in the health seeking behaviour among the insured and uninsured residents of Lusaka. The results also revealed that the number of visits to health facility was associated to the presence of insurance (p=0.003). In conclusion, outcomes of this study have shown that people who are covered by medical insurance make more frequent visits to the health facilities than those without medical insurance. In addition, there is a significant association between frequency of visits to the hospital among the insured and uninsured participants.
Description
Research Report Public Health