Estimating willingness to pay for maternal health services: The Kenya reproductive health voucher programme

Abstract

As part of a broad evaluation of a reproductive health voucher programme aimed at determining its effect on health outcomes, a willingness to pay (WTP) study was conducted. The purpose of the study was to estimate WTP values for a broad range of reproductive health (RH) services namely: antenatal care (ANC), delivery, postnatal care (PNC) and family planning (FP) services. The study also sought to investigate the effect of the voucher programme on respondents’ stated WTP values for the RH services. Women utilizing RH services at both voucher and non-voucher facilities were asked about their WTP for the RH services and WTP values were elicited using a stated preferences method. The study found that women were willing to pay a positive price to access RH services. Results also point to a differential learning effect or experience of the voucher on WTP for ANC, PNC, FP and delivery services. Further analysis also highlights endowment and reference effects with the voucher cost impacting on stated WTP amounts. The findings point to the potential for designing a sliding scale payment mechanism with effective targeting of subsidies such as vouchers to the neediest segments of the population. This will allow potential service users to pay for services within their willingness and ability to pay while also freeing resources to cater for the neediest segments of the population.