Patients’ Perception and Utilization of National Health Insurance Authority in Abuja Municipal Area Council, Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

Access to quality healthcare can often be expensive even in advanced countries. That is why
governments all over the world have introduced one form of health insurance or the other.
However, there seems to be below par utilization of the National Health Insurance Scheme
(NHIS) in Nigeria. This study seeks to examine the influence of patients’ perception on
utilization of National health insurance services in three selected (District hospitals) in AMAC,
FCT, Abuja. This study adopts the descriptive survey research design. The population of this
study comprised the enrollees of AMAC District hospitals, FCT, Abuja. A sample of three
hundred and eight five (385) enrollees of the three district hospitals were selected using simple
random sampling. A structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data which was
analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Response rate = 79% and about 56.6%
of the respondents were Females, ages 25-35 with 72.5% being married. The majority of
respondents were Christians with 66.8%, 30% were Muslims and the remaining 2.9% were
others. Most respondents were BSc/HND holders with 58.9%, MSc 6.6%, ND 24.75, and the
remaining 9.9% were school cert holders. About 53% of respondents enjoy the health insurance
because they enjoy medical care from well trained personnel. More than 50% of the respondents
feel that the Nurses and Doctors do not treat patients with respect and they considered the
waiting time very high. The majority of respondents also feel that they are not being treated
according to NHIA operational guidelines, and that the cash paying patients are treated better.
There was a significant influence of patients’ perception on utilization of health insurance
services. The Perception of health insurance among the enrollees of AMAC district hospitals
varied while the utilization was fair enough.