Determinants of the Willingness to Pay for Public Sector Health Care Services: An Empirical Study of Rural and Urban Communities in Nigeria

Abstract

The adoption of user charges in the consumption of public health care services in Nigeria has been questioned on many grounds, one of which is, the willingness to pay for these services, especially given the high rate of poverty being experienced in the Nigerian economy. While out-of-pocket expenses dominate in households’ payment for health care services in Nigeria, the proportion of Nigerians living in poverty (both in the rural and urban areas) kept increasing every year as indicated by the incidence of poverty data. This unswerving increase in the poverty rate does influence the households’ ability and willingness to pay these charges in Nigeria. Accordingly, this study, using both primary and secondary data, examined the determinants of households’ willingness to pay for public health care services in Nigeria and evaluate the extent to which these factors affect households’ willingness to pay in both urban and rural areas. The findings show that the willingness to pay increased with income in all the cases considered. Distance ranks high as one of the most important price factors that influences the willingness to pay more in public sector health care services for rural dwellers while quality of care was momentous for urban respondents.