Title : Comparison on knowledge on health insurance between urban and rural elderly people
Abstract:
For elderly people, due to financial conditions, health service utilization is poor, which can be helped by health insurance. The objective of the study was to compare the state of knowledge on health insurance between urban and rural elderly people. A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among 208 (Urban: 104; Rural: 104) elderly people by face-to-face interview through a pre-tested structured questionnaire from January to December, 2023. Most of the participants were male (U:63.5%; R:57.7%) with having 5-6 co-morbidities (U:4.1%; R:2%). About 60% urban and 50.5% rural respondents used monthly savings for health expenses. The term health insurance was known by 50% urban and 25% rural respondents. Among them, the source of information for 21.2% urban & 19.1% rural respondents was from insurance company. The highest number of urban participants had knowledge about types (U:37.5%; R:21.2%), duration (U:24.04%; R:15.3%), age limit (U:26%; R:21.2%), policy (U:46.2%; R:24%), coverage (U:39.4%; R:24%), premium (U:33%; R:18.3%), claim (U:39.4%; R:31%), maximum number of claim (U:29%; R:16.4%), deductible (U:18.3%; R:10%), coinsurance (U:18.3%; R:10%) and copay (U:12.5%; R:8%) than rural participants. Location, education and employment status were found significantly associated with knowledge. By binary logistic regression, (CI 95% and p value < 0.05) it was found that urban people have 3.33 more likely to having knowledge than rural people. People who were educated have 8.24 times & who were employed have 2.6 times more likely to having knowledge respectively then people had no education and were unemployed. Findings of the study can help policymakers and health administrators to develop specific policy, programs for elderly people thus achieve universal health coverage.
