The Effect of Health Insurance on the Number of Hospital Admission Days in Iran

Background: Providing health services is the most basic function of the health system. Having health insurance means that people can pay less in comparison with not having major medical insurance. Therefore, the aim of this study was the effect of health insurance on the Number of Hospital Admission Days in Iran. Methods: This descriptive analytical study was conducted on the micro data of health service utilization survey which was prepared in 2014 by the Health Research Institute in cooperation with the Iranian Statistics Center. The information of 22470 households was collected with household questionnaires (demographic, social and health information) and individual questionnaires (information of household members) and data of 5682 hospitalized patients by stratified sampling method. Data analysis was performed using hierarchical non-linear Poisson regression. Results: Based on information received from 5682 patients hospitalized in hospitals in the country, the distribution of insurance coverage was such that 2364 people (41.6 %) had social security insurance. The results showed that the relationship between basic social security insurance and background variables and the number of days of hospitalization was statistically significant, but there was no such relationship with supplementary insurance. Conclusion: The result showed that having supplementary insurance has increased the chance of increasing the number of hospitalization days, and this could indicate that major medical insurance reduces health costs, and subsequently, people use more health services. Therefore, it is suggested that in order to improve the health of the society, all segments of society that do not have basic insurance benefit from major medical insurance by adopting supportive government policies.