FACTORS AND BARRIERS THAT AFFECT THE PARTICIPATION IN VOLUNTARY HEALTH INSURANCE OF PEOPLE IN INFORMAL SECTOR IN BAVI DISTRICT, HANOI 2012

Abstract

This study is a cross-sectional one that collects data about the enrollment in health insurance and the socio-economic factors of people in Bavi district. The purposes of this study were to analyze the factors and barriers affecting the participation in voluntary health insurance among people of different socio-economic groups in informal sector in Bavi district in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2012. This study analyzed the secondary data of 22,728 individuals. Descriptive analysis and binary logistic regression were used to describe the trend and discover the determinants of the decision on purchasing voluntary health insurance of people and the reasons for never enrolling or renewing health insurance of people with non-enrollment status. The results reveal that gender and age, educational level, economic status, health status and occupation have significantly impact on the enrollment in voluntary scheme. Regarding to the non-enrollment population, age, gender, marital status, educational level, economic status, health status and occupation are found to have impact on the decision of not buying or not renewing health insurance of people. The most common barrier is “no money to buy”, following by “Complex procedures and “no sickness” as the second and the third common barriers. In terms of impacts of barriers, financial difficulty ranks first among the barriers, then “poor attitude of health staff” and “inadequate insurance benefit” come next. Farmers are found to be less likely to enroll and financial difficulty plays critical role when considering enrollment in health insurance. Dependents have tendency of enroll in health insurance while employed people seems less interested in having health insurance. Both dependents and employed people share the same barrier of” switching type of health insurance” as the most impact reason for their non-enrollment status.