Investigating The Operating Factors Influencing The High Cost Of Private Healthcare In Namibia: A Case Study Of The Medical Aid Funds Industry In Namibia

ABSTRACT

This study investigated on the factors driving high cost in the private medical health providers in Namibia. The study sort seeks answers to the following questions (1) how has the trend in the Private Medical Aid Fund cost been during the period 2009 to 2013 (2) What are the factors contributing to annual increments in the Medical Aid Fund Premiums (3) Do increases in the Medical Aid Fund Premiums have impacts on access to Private healthcare in Namibia (4) What can be done to curb the increase cost of Private Medical Aid Funds in Namibia. The researcher used a face to face interview which was administered to 25 medical aid personnel. A structured questionnaire was administered to 50 randomly selected members of the public including members of private medical aid funds. The qualitative data was analyzed using Atlas.ti software which grouped the data into semantic codes and themes. The theoretical triangulation was used to interpret the data on the views and perceptions of the key informants. These views and perceptions were grouped into different themes related to the factors that drive the Medical Aid cost in Namibia. For the quantitative data analysis, the descriptive statistics were used to describe and synthesize the socio-demographic data. In fact, the categorical variables were summarized into frequency distributions and percentages; the continuous variables were summarized into central tendency parameters (mean, median, and mode) and the dispersion parameters (standard deviation, Interquartile).