Influence of Awareness of Daily Payment on Uptake of Social Health Insurance among Bodaboda Operators In Eldoret Town, Kenya

Abstract

Health financing is an important component of healthcare delivery. In Kenya, the universal health cover scheme has officially been adopted by the government and it is delivered through the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). The health insurer has since unbundled its subscription to include small daily subscription packages targeting low income workers in the country among them the motorcycle taxi operators (also known in Kenya as BodaBoda) aiming to reduce the costly out-of-pocket health financing. However, it is not known why low subscription of the daily package was still being reported among Bodaboda operators in Eldoret town in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The study, therefore, sought to find out how awareness of daily payment influenced uptake of social health insurance among Bodaboda operators in the town. The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive design and used purposive sampling to select 263 respondents from 5000 Bodaboda operators including 26 officials affiliated to 26 registered cooperative organizations in the town. Data was collected from the respondents using both questionnaire and focus group discussions. Quantitative data from questionnaires was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 software. Qualitative data from focus group discussions was analyzed using conceptual content analysis. The study confirmed that majority (69.8%) of the Bodaboda operators were uninsured by NHIF. It also revealed that awareness plays a significant (OR.1.394, 95% CI = 0.559 – 3.478) role in the uptake of the daily health insurance package among Bodaboda operators. Further, the odds of uptake increased with the level of education of the Bodaboda operators. The study recommends that NHIF come up with targeted awareness strategies that reach out directly to the members of the bodaboda operators Saccos with current information about the products they have on offer and the subscriptions options.