Assessment of rural households’ willingness to pay for healthcare insurance in Bauchi state of Nigeria

Contrary to previous studies on agriculture, cross-disciplinary studies on the value of health risk reduction (VHRR), value of statistical life (VSL), and value of statistical case (VSC) are extremely uncommon in Nigeria and the study area specifically. In light of the lack of information, this study will likely use the VSL and VSC methodologies to address the “benefit transfer” on environmental health risk reduction linked to morbidity incidence within the agricultural sector. Consequently, this research aimed to determine rural households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for healthcare insurance in Bauchi State of Nigeria. Using an easy-cost route approach, cross-sectional data were elicited by a well-structured questionnaire coupled with an interview schedule from a total of 319 households selected through a multi-stage random sampling technique. To achieve the specified objectives, the collected data were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistics. Empirically, malaria and typhoid were the major morbidities affecting the households and, on average, cost a household a whopping sum of NGN 70, 944.70 per month. Consequently, the majority, though marginally above half of the sampled households showed interest in social healthcare insurance in order to have access to better healthcare services. However, the premium rate poses a threat to the sustainability of the scheme, as evidenced by its inverse relationship with WTP; thus, a spoon-feeding premium rate at the initial phase is suggested, pending the beneficial impact of the scheme on the lives of the majority in the study area. Old age, poor agricultural holdings, and lack of credit facilities were the stumbling blocks to WTP for healthcare insurance in the study area. Therefore, the study advises policymakers to improve social health safety coverage for old-aged households, provide adequate credit facilities, and leverage for income generation, thereby enhancing the scope and sustainability of social healthcare insurance in the study area.