Predicting Health Insurance Policy Subscription Intention: An Empirical Study

• Published in: Social work in public health Vol. 38; no. 4; pp. 281 - 297
• Main Authors: Arkorful, Vincent Ekow, Lugu, Benjamin Kweku, Shuliang, Zhao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Routledge 19-05-2023; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Attitude; descriptive norm; Ghana; Health and social policy; Health behavior; Health care access; Health care policy; Health insurance; Health Policy; Health research; Health services; Humans; Insurance policies; Insurance, Health; Intention; Locus of control; Norms; personal moral norm; Structural equation modeling; Surveys and Questionnaires; Theory of planned behavior; descriptive norm; theory of planned behavior; Ghana; Health and social policy; health insurance; personal moral norm
• ISSN: 1937-1918; 1937-190X
• DOI: 10.1080/19371918.2022.2135662

Though health insurance policies remain critical to eliminating healthcare access barriers, population-wide subscription in Ghana however remains unsatisfactory. Therefore, this study, while employing a questionnaire survey to elicit data (n= 312) analyzed via the structural equation modeling technique, investigates individual health insurance subscription underpinnings using the theory of planned behavior. The results of data analysis affirmed attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavior control as positively related to health insurance subscription. Similarly, results further revealed personal norm and descriptive norm as significantly related to intention, testifying to individuals' subscription as not anchored on a single factor, but rather on a confluence of behavior-driven elements. The current study, in addition to affirming the TPB's predictive potency, also enriches health insurance research, and underscores the much often-disregarded behavior constituents as imperative to health policy design and implementation. In view of the study results, implications for augmenting subscription, and suggestions for further research are subsequently delineated.