Enrollment and Uptake of Health Care Financing Schemes among Adult Inpatients in Baringo County, Kenya

Abstract

A high burden of healthcare expenditure precludes the poor from access to quality healthcare services. Due to the dearth of studies detailing healthcare financing in rural-based counties in Kenya, the study examined enrolment and uptake of healthcare financing schemes among adult inpatients in Baringo County, Kenya. The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional research design and was situated in Baringo County Referral Hospital with a target population of about 8,400 monthly or more than 100,000 patients annually. A sample size of 398 patients/and or caregivers was selected based on the stratified simple random sampling method. The results indicated age > 35 years (OR = 0.76120, p = 0.004), Occupation (OR = 0.65730, p = 0.000), income levels (OR = 1.67921, p = 0.000), marital status (OR = 0.38342, p = 0.000) and household size > 4 but less than 9 (OR = 3.66847, p = 0.000) and explain about 21.58 per cent in the enrolment in a healthcare insurance scheme. The conclusions are that demographic factors (age, marital status, occupation, income levels and household size) influence enrolment This implies that young unmarried individuals < 35 years, employed with income > Ksh 20,000 and with household size < 5 persons were more likely to enrol for a healthcare financial scheme. The study recommends that a universal healthcare financing scheme should be implemented to make healthcare financing more affordable and accessible through policy interventions