Influencing Factors on Buying Health Supplemental Insurance by the Staff of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences

One of the most reliable sources of financing healthcare costs is healthinsurance. Covering all the services by basic health insurance is not affordable economically, so that some services are covered by supplementary health insurances. This study aimed to determine the factors influencing buying the different levels of Kowsar supplementary health insurance by the staff of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 2014-2015.

This is a cross-sectional study. Two data collection forms were used to collect thedata. A sample size of 500 was determined using the rule of thumb. The individuals wereselected via using two-stage stratified and systematic sampling. To do the estimation, theordinal logistic regression model (link function was logit) was specified by the one-sidedsignificant variable tests at the first step. Then, the independent variables were examined by the link test, and the linear relationship among variables was also investigated. The software Excel 2010 and STATA 11.0 (stata corp LLC) were used in this paper.

 The findings showed that among the people with supplementary insurance, themajority were males (60%), married (85%), with the basic Tamin Ejtemaei insurance (72.3%). Among those who have not chosen the supplementary health insurance, the largest number were women (69%), unmarried (53%), and insured by Tamin Ejtemaei (80%), respectively. The findings suggest that some factors such as the age, gender, income and cost of insurance packages are the most influential factors on buying different levels of health care insurance. In the first model that included people with supplementary insurance, the income elasticity was significant and positive (Beta=3, P=0.047) and price elasticity of demand was negative (Beta=-0.06, P=0.001). In the second model that complemented those with and without supplementary insurance, the income elasticity was insignificant (Beta=2.46, P=0.085), and the demand price elasticity was negative (Beta=-0.06, P=0.001).

 The economic factor seems to be the most influential factor in choosingsupplementary insurance. Since this problem causes the low-income households not to usethe insurance; therefore, the government is required to allocate some subsidies for low income household to be covered by supplementary health insurance for special services.