Estimating willingness to pay for supplementary health insurance; Applications of the contingent valuation method and logit regression model

Healthcare insurance coverage services in Iran are limited, and out-of-pocket costs are very high. Supplementary health insurance grants extra coverage and additional healthcare services in the presence of limited health insurance services to the individuals and protects them against huge healthcare costs. One of the obstacles to expanded health insurance schemes, especially in supplementary health insurance, is an undetermined willingness to pay (WTP) for these types of coverages. The objective of this study is to estimate WTP for supplementary health insurance. Data collected from small and medium enterprise employees in 7 areas Iran including Tehran, Shiraz, and Bandar-e Abbas in 2017 and the contingent valuation method and a logit regression model was implemented to analyze the data. Results show that WTP for supplementary health insurance is 70.23 thousand Tumans. Education level, employment status, real income, current health conditions, history of chronic disease, number of doctor visits, real healthcare costs, and satisfaction from healthcare services are all found to affect WTP for supplementary health insurance.