Profile of the Uninsured in Jordan

This report, one of four ongoing research efforts by Partnerships for Health Reform Project (PHR) on Jordanian insurance issues, analyses the 1996 Jordan Living Conditions Survey (JLCS), a survey of more than 5,900 households. The paper looks at the impact of insurance in accessing medical services and finds that:

• 32 percent of Jordanians lack formal health insurance coverage and a majority of these seek treatment at private sector clinics when an illness occurs;
• The uninsured are primarily non-working Jordanian citizens (mostly women 20 to 34 years of age), residing in middle-income households;
• Special attention in programme design needs to be paid to the aged who will benefit from insurance schemes that are not limited to employer-based policies.

The paper looks at the policy an implication of the results and provides information that can help policymakers design a benefits package, cost-sharing arrangements as well as to estimate utilisation rates and expenditures of expanded coverage.