Social Capital and Willingness-to-Pay for Community-Based Health Insurance in Rural Cameroon

Abstract

Community-based health insurance in developing countries is often perceived as a way to improve the healthstate of rural households. An open question is whether the social capital has a positive impact on the demand forhealth insurance. A contingent valuation study was conducted to explore the influence of the social capital on thedemand for health insurance. The main results are that (i) most of the rural households are willing to pay forcommunity-based health insurance (ii) the social capital has a positive impact on the willingness to pay forcommunity-based health insurance. The policy implications of the results are discussed.