Households’ Willingness to Pay for Health Microinsurance and its Impact on Actual Take-up: Results from a Field Experiment in Senegal

Abstract

Community-based health insurance schemes (CBHIS) have been present in the region of Theis, Senegal, for many years. Yet, despite the benefits they offer, take-up rates remain low. This article measures the willingness to pay (WTP) for CBHIS premiums in such a context; our results highlight the role of income, wealth and risk preferences as determinants of WTP. We also provide an analysis of the predictive power of WTP on the actual take-up of insurance following our offering of membership to a sample of 360 households. Results show that WTP has a positive and significant impact on actual CBHIS take-up.

Reassessing the demand for community-based health insurance in rural Senegal: Geographic distance and awareness

“…Our findings also help clarify the role of risk preference in CBHI uptake. In the literature, while Bonan et al (2014) showed that risk-averse heads of households had a higher willingness to pay for health microinsurance in Senegal, Bonan et al ( 2017 ) found that risk aversion did not influence uptake. Dercon et al (2019) showed that, surprisingly, risk aversion may be negatively associated with health insurance demand in settings where trust in insurance schemes is limited (due to misperceptions of product attributes).…”

A Study of Ability to Pay and Willingness to Pay of National Health Insurance Voluntaryparticipant in Rural Area

“…Binam et al (2002) state that household economic conditions have an influence on willingness to pay [3]. Research by Bendig and Arun (2012) and Bonan (2013) found that a large number of stairs with a high number of non-productive ages could influence the willingness to pay premiums. [4] This is because the composition of the age of the respondent family, which consists mostly of the productive age, has a lower risk of illness so that the needs or demands for health service needs are also lower.…”

“…Research by Bendig and Arun (2012) and Bonan (2013) found that a large number of stairs with a high number of non-productive ages could influence the willingness to pay premiums. [4] This is because the composition of the age of the respondent family, which consists mostly of the productive age, has a lower risk of illness so that the needs or demands for health service needs are also lower. However, Lofgreen et al (2008) asserted that the variable number of families can influence the perception of the willingness of the community to pay premiums.…”

Pricing strategies in the German term life insurance market: An empirical analysis

“…In the context of insurance, several articles empirically examine WTP in developing countries for crop insurance (see, e.g., Bulte et al, 2019; Freudenreich & Mußhoff, 2018; Wang et al, 2020), health insurance (see, e.g., Bonan et al, 2014; Delavallade, 2017), livestock insurance (see, e.g., Castellani & Vigan'o, 2017), different types of index and microinsurance in different parts of the world (see, e.g., Elabed & Carter, 2015), flood insurance (see, e.g., Botzen & Bergh, 2012), and weather insurance (see, e.g., Fraser, 1992; Musshoff et al, 2008). For developed countries, analyses of WTP for insurance tend to focus on public social systems.…”