IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/hal-02493397.html

The importance of information on enrollment in a health insurance system: an employee survey in Senegal

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Monteiro

    (I&P - Investisseurs et Partenaires)

Abstract

Using a unique database of 204 employees in Senegal, this paper seeks to understand the determinants leading to the choice to enroll (or not) in a health insurance plan. To answer this question, we created three surveys to test certain preferences (time preference and risk aversion) and the role of information. In this paper, we show that Senegalese employees have a very strong preference for the present and a low aversion to loss, which could cause them to not take out insurance. We find that access to information on health insurance plays an essential role in the willingness to enroll. While 12% of employees who received no information about health insurance said they would not want to be insured if they could choose, this proportion dropped to 2% among employees who received positive information about health insurance. These results are econometrically confirmed when controlling for other factors such as gender, age and education. These results show the importance of information on people's perception of health insurance. It is therefore essential to communicate on the functioning of health insurance and the benefits of being covered in order to strengthen adherence to a health insurance system.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Monteiro, 2019. "The importance of information on enrollment in a health insurance system: an employee survey in Senegal," Working Papers hal-02493397, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02493397
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-02493397
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-02493397/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liu, Kai, 2016. "Insuring against health shocks: Health insurance and household choices," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 16-32.
    2. Office of Health Economics, 2007. "The Economics of Health Care," For School 001490, Office of Health Economics.
    3. Rebecca L. Thornton & Laurel E. Hatt & Erica M. Field & Mursaleena Islam & Freddy Solís Diaz & Martha Azucena González, 2010. "Social security health insurance for the informal sector in Nicaragua: a randomized evaluation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(S1), pages 181-206, September.
    4. Nandakumar, A. K. & Chawla, Mukesh & Khan, Maryam, 2000. "Utilization of Outpatient Care in Egypt and its Implications for the Role of Government in Health Care Provision," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 187-196, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lin, Lin & Zai, Xianhua, 2022. "The Power of Public Insurance With Limited Benefits: Evidence from China's New Cooperative Medical Scheme," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1180, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. repec:dem:wpaper:wp-2022-025 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Aurélien Baillon & Aleli Kraft & Owen O’Donnell & Kim Wilgenburg, 2022. "A behavioral decomposition of willingness to pay for health insurance," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 64(1), pages 43-87, February.
    4. Christian Lorenz, 2012. "Triangulating health expenditure estimates from different data sources in developing countries," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, January.
    5. Gabriella Conti & Kosuke Imai & Cynthia Kinnan & Anup Malani & Morgen Miller & Shailender Swaminathan & Alessandra Voena & Bartosz Woda, 2024. "Evaluating pricing health insurance in lower-income countries: A field experiment in India," IFS Working Papers W24/33, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    6. James F. Burgess & Matthew L. Maciejewski & Chris L. Bryson & Michael Chapko & John C. Fortney & Mark Perkins & Nancy D. Sharp & Chuan‐Fen Liu, 2011. "Importance of health system context for evaluating utilization patterns across systems," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 239-251, February.
    7. McDonald, Rebecca & Powdthavee, Nattavudh, 2018. "The Shadow Prices of Voluntary Caregiving: Using Panel Data of Well-Being to Estimate the Cost of Informal Care," IZA Discussion Papers 11545, IZA Network @ LISER.
    8. Verónica Amarante & Marco Manacorda & Edward Miguel & Andrea Vigorito, 2016. "Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Program, and Social Security Data," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 1-43, May.
    9. Hope Corman & Dhaval Dave & Nancy E. Reichman, 2018. "Evolution of the Infant Health Production Function," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(1), pages 6-47, July.
    10. Trottmann, Maria & Zweifel, Peter & Beck, Konstantin, 2012. "Supply-side and demand-side cost sharing in deregulated social health insurance: Which is more effective?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 231-242.
    11. Cinzia Di Novi & Rowena Jacobs & Matteo Migheli, 2015. "The Quality of Life of Female Informal Caregivers: From Scandinavia to the Mediterranean Sea," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 31(3), pages 309-333, August.
    12. Colombier, Carsten & Weber, Werner, 2009. "Projecting health-care expenditure for Switzerland: further evidence against the 'red-herring' hypothesis," MPRA Paper 26747, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Nov 2009.
    13. V. Srinivasan & G. Shainesh & Anand K. Sharma, 2015. "An approach to prioritize customer-based, cost-effective service enhancements," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(14), pages 747-762, October.
    14. Marianne P. Bitler & Madeline Zavodny, 2014. "Medicaid: A Review of the Literature," NBER Working Papers 20169, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Seungchul Lee & Robert Rosenman, 2013. "Reimbursement and Investment: Prospective Payment and For-Profit Hospitals’ Market Share," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 503-518, December.
    16. Margaret Triyana, 2016. "Do Health Care Providers Respond to Demand-Side Incentives? Evidence from Indonesia," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 255-288, November.
    17. Cebula, Richard, 2007. "Small Firm Size and Health Insurance: A Private Enterprise Perspective," MPRA Paper 50939, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Apr 2007.
    18. Murthy, Vasudeva N.R. & Okunade, Albert A., 2009. "The core determinants of health expenditure in the African context: Some econometric evidence for policy," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 57-62, June.
    19. Fabio Pammolli & Francesco Porcelli & Francesco Vidoli & Monica Auteri & Guido Borà, 2017. "La spesa sanitaria delle Regioni in Italia - Saniregio2017," Working Papers CERM 01-2017, Competitività, Regole, Mercati (CERM).
    20. Richard C. van Kleef, 2012. "Managed competition in the Dutch Health Care System: Preconditions and experiences so far," Public Policy Review, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan, vol. 8(2), pages 145-170, July.
    21. Shunichi Fukuhara & Chikao Yamazaki & Yasuaki Hayashino & Takahiro Higashi & Margaret Eichleay & Takashi Akiba & Tadao Akizawa & Akira Saito & Friedrich Port & Kiyoshi Kurokawa, 2007. "The organization and financing of end-stage renal disease treatment in Japan," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 217-231, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02493397. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.