Abstract:

Maternal mortality is currently high and remains one of the most important public health problems in developing countries. This study determined the cost of vaginal and caesarean section deliveries among Health Insurance (HI) enrollees and Out-of-Pocket (OOP) payers. A comparative cross-sectional study was carried out among 380 women {(133 vaginal and 57 caesarean section deliveries among each of HI enrollees and OOP payers)} who accessed delivery services in a tertiary health institution in Southwest Nigeria using a systematic random sampling technique. Data was gathered using an interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23. P-value <0.05 was taken as significant. The overall mean age of respondents in this study was 36.5 ± 4.7years among the vaginal delivery respondents and 35.8 ± 3.6 years among caesarean section delivery respondents. The mean total cost of vaginal delivery for HI enrollees {₦14,238.5 ± 4,809.0 ($34.5 ± 12.7)} is lesser than for OOP payers {₦37,928.5 ± 19,813.0 ($99.8 ± 52.1)}. Furthermore, the mean total cost of caesarean section delivery for HI enrollees {₦14,238.5 ± 4,809.0 ($34.5 ± 12.7)} is lesser than for OOP payers (₦37,928.5 ± 19,813.0 ($99.8 ± 52.1}. 94.1% of the non-insurance enrollees were willing to join Health Insurance Scheme. It was concluded that the total cost of vaginal and caesarean section deliveries is lower among the Health Insurance enrollees than the Out-of-Pocket payers. Therefore, intervention to increase awareness on health insurance is recommended.

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