Household Valuation for Proposed Pediatric Dental Insurance Packages in Isfahan, Iran

Dental insurance package provided with health system is related to promotion of dental health, and reduction of burden of dental diseases. The purpose of this study is to investigate the willingness to pay of households for children's dental insurance coverage with using the open-ended question technique.

The present study is a cross-sectional survey. Sample size included 496 head of household or their spouses who had at least one 6-12 years old child and visited to selected dental clinics in Isfahan city in the year of 2020. An online /paper & pencil self-completion questionnaire was filled in by each respondent.The open-ended question technique was used to estimate the willingness to pay of respondents. Stata11 software was used to process the data.

The mean of monthly WTP per each child in the scenarios with ceiling reimbursement was 285782.2 Rial. The highest and lowest WTP for those scenarios averaged 44365.8 Rial and 195819.7 Rial, respectively. The mean of monthly WTP per each child in the scenarios without ceiling reimbursement was 246926.2 Rial. The highest and lowest WTP for these scenarios averaged 345319.2 Rial and 165629 Rial, respectively.

The findings indicated that households value pediatric dental insurance packages differently considering the attributes of each dental package. Thus, policy-makers and health insurers need to pay special attention to households’ valuation for pediatric dental insurance coverage.