Willingness to pay and its influence factors among inpatients with urban employee basic medical insurance in Hunan province

Objective To explore the willingness to pay(WTP) for basic medical insurance and its main influencing factors among inpatients with the urban employee basic medical insurance(UEBMI) in Hunan province and to provide suggestions for sustainable development of UEBMI.Methods Using stratified random sampling, 1025 inpatients covered by UEBMI and hospitalized during 2013 in 35 hospitals in Changsha city were recruited from the Information Systems of Hunan Provincial Medical, Occupational Injury and Maternity Insurance Management Bureau and surveyed with a telephone interview on their WTP for basic medical insurance and related factors between June and September 2013 using contingent valuation method.Results Of the 893 participants with eligible response, 828(92.7%) expressed their WTP for UEBMI continuously; the median of the premium for UEBMI the participants considered to pay was 60 RMB yuan, accounting for 1.8%of their average monthly salary.The results of ridge regression analyses showed that age(β=-0.044), family monthly income per capita(β=0.190), education level(β=0.040, and self-evaluated health status(β=-0.056) were main influencing factors for WTP.Conclusion The WTP for basic medical insurance is relatively low among inpatients with UEBMI, suggesting that the UEBMI needs to be improved by increasing economic subsidy for vulnerable groups and developing a multi-level medical insurance system.