Uptake Of Health Insurance Among Motorcycle Taxi Riders In Nandi County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Health insurance pools money into a common fund and used for paying for health-care costs of members with a view to sharing risk among the population and avoiding catastrophic health-care expenditure. Motorcycle taxis operators are 30 times more at risk of getting involved in road accident that other road users. As such, victims incur high cost of medical and rehabilitation and more likely to be impoverished. Despite the availability of health insurance schemes, uptake of health insurance among motorcycle taxi riders remains low. The study sought to assess uptake of health insurance levels among motorcycle taxi riders in Nandi County. Further, the study assessed socio-economic characteristics, behavioural determinants, and perceptions held over uptake of health insurance by motorcycle taxi riders. A cross-sectional study design that employed quantitative and qualitative methods. Data on demographics, uptake levels, socio-economic, perceptions and behavioural factors were collected from 290 motorcycle taxi riders who were selected using probability proportionate sampling and simple random sampling techniques. Data was collected using an interviewer administered questionnaire and focus group discussions. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS version 20 and thematic content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data from focus group discussion. Median, frequencies, and percentages were used to describe data. Chi-square test was used to identify associations between categorical variables and binary logistic regression was utilized to establish predictors to uptake of health insurance. Associations were considered significant at p