Designing the Financing Model of Primary Health Care for the Elderly in Iran

Strengthening primary health care services for the elderly is vital. In this regard, adequate and sustainable financing is necessary for primary health care. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the methods of financing primary health care for the elderly in Iran in 2021. This is a mixed method cross-sectional study carried out in 2021 with a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. The sample size was estimated to be 254 subjects. Sampling was done in a stratified manner. The studied variables were the result of a comparative study and interview. In this study, to measure the construct validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis method was used. Data were analyzed using SPSS-21 and AMOS-24 software. The results of exploratory factor analysis showed that all variables had factor loadings above 0.3. The results of the second-order confirmatory factor analysis showed that all the items of primary health care financing for the elderly were approved. These items include the allocation of GDP to cover part of the costs of old age care, tax collection, social insurance coverage for the disabled and retired, allocation of subsidies to vulnerable groups, private and supplementary insurances, transfer of employee insurance premiums to medical funds to cover the health and medical expenses in old age, the use of municipal and governorate budgets, and incentive policies. The results showed that the use of municipal and governorate budgets and incentive policies had the highest (0.726) and the lowest (0.531) standard coefficients, respectively. The findings of the study show that the construct validity of the designed model has a good level. Using this model by managers, policymakers, and health planners can improve the financing of primary health care services for the elderly and thus meet their health needs.