Acceptability of the National Health Insurance scheme and preferred benefit package among civil servants in Rivers State, Nigeria

Health-care insurance is one of the financial risk protection tools available to clients in the health-care industry. In most developing countries, citizens are in favor of paying for their health-care expenses out of pocket, a payment mode that potentially tips these people into poverty. This study aims to determine the level of acceptance of and the preferred benefit package available in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) among civil servants in Rivers State, Nigeria. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, respondents were selected through simple random sampling. The collected data were cleaned and analyzed with Statistical Product and Service Solution version 23. Out of the 351 respondents, male subjects accounted for the big majority of the sample (n = 208; 59.3%); only 30 (8.5%) had any form of health insurance; and about two-thirds of the respondents, at around 223 (63.5%), expressed acceptance of using NHIS as a strategy for payment. The most preferred benefits package was the one that covers all services 178 (50.7%). The poor and the poorest showed a preference for the health-care benefits package that covers all expenses, whereas the rich showed a preference for services covering basic diseases. The overall acceptability of the NHIS was statistically associated with socio-economic status (p ≤ 0.05). Thus, the opinions of the consumers and their health needs must be taken into consideration when planning a health insurance benefits package.