Knowledge of Health Insurance Among Primary Health-Care Managers in Shongom LGA, Gombe State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was formally launched in Nigeria in 2005 as an option to help bridge the evident gaps in health care financing, with the expectation of it leading to significant improvement in the country's dismal health status indices. Primary Health Care (PHC) is the nation's adopted strategy for health service delivery and its managers are central to the success of any health-related programme. There is paucity of specific data about what this critical group of people know about health insurance.
Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the level of knowledge of managers of the Shongom PHC system about health insurance.
Methods: The study was of a descriptive cross-sectional design carried out among twenty-eight PHC managers of government-provided and community-owned health facilities/units in Shongom LGA, Gombe State, northeastern Nigeria.
Results: Among the respondents, 17.9% had good knowledge about health insurance while 35.7% and 46.4% had fair and poor scores respectively. Respondents in government-provided facilities/units had 6.3%, 37.5% and 56.3% for good, fair and poor scores respectively, while their counterparts in community-owned facilities had 33.3% for each of the score grades.
Conclusion: The research showed that knowledge about health insurance among managers in this rural PHC system was below average.

Keywords: Health insurance, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Primary Health Care, Primary Health Care Managers.