OBJECTIVES

: To find out the awareness of health insurance and willingness to enroll for a health insurance scheme in a rural population.

METHODS

: A cross sectional study was carried out among rural households who were not enrolled in any health insurance schemes. Two smallest administrative units out of thirteen of a district were randomly selected for the study. The total number of 145 household were selected for the study. A validated semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from the head of the household. Chi square test for association was used to find out the association between willingness to pay and socio-demographic profile status.

RESULTS

: There was a high rate of awareness of health insurance 96%, and about 83% of the respondents who were not enrolled for any health insurance scheme expressed willingness to enroll for one. There was no association between willingness to enroll and socio-economic characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS

: Although there was a high percentage of awareness, enrollment into any type of health insurance was low, this makes the population vulnerable to catastrophic health care expenditure. There is a necessity to encourage more enrollment and create more awareness regarding the advantages of enrolling in a health insurance scheme