FACTORS AFFECTING FINANCIAL PROTECTION AMONG POOR HOUSEHOLDS IN SUDAN

Abstract

Protection of poor households against the risk of medical expenses is one of the main objectives looked at by the governments especially in low and middle income countries. In Sudan, out of pocket health expenditure reaches 64.5% of total health expenditure. This high out of pocket expense is the challenge facing poor households. Therefore, welfare health insurance scheme, which is a subsidized scheme, has been introduced and targeted towards the poor by providing them with financial protection. The objective of this study is to examine the factors affecting poor household`s financial protection and the magnitude of their effects. The study is quantitative and it utilizes cross-sectional data from Sudan Households Health Utilization Expenditure Survey in Northern States 2009. Samples of 6986 poor households are found eligible for this study. Binary Logit regression is employed for the analysis. Results showed that health insurance coverage among poor was 16%, only 25.9% were urban residents, 24.9% were chronically ill. Poor insured households were less likely to incur catastrophe by 2.5% than uninsured at 40% cut off point while chronic illness was the main cause of catastrophe among insured and uninsured with higher probability among uninsured. Urban resident were less likely to incur catastrophe with probability of 8.7% less than those in the rural. Our finding shows that NHIF coverage provided financial protection for poor households but at low rates. In addition, chronic illnesses were the main cause of catastrophe among poor households. Lower incidence of catastrophe was found among urban residents than rural ones. Female headed households were more vulnerable to catastrophe than the male headed ones.