Enrolment and Micro Health Insurance Growth in Cameroon: the case of BEPHA Scheme in the Bamenda Metropolis, Cameroon

Micro Health Insurance Schemes such as BEPHA have been envisaged by the World Health Organization as a means to facilitate the achievement of universal health coverage and reduce catastrophic out of pocket payment for health care in the developing countries especially in Sub Saharan African countries including Cameroon. Purpose: The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of enrollment on the growth of Micro Health Insurance schemes in Bamenda. Methodology: The causal and descriptive design was adopted for this study. The study area was the Bamenda Metropolis where the MHIS, BEPHA exists. The subjects of the study consisted of people of both sexes between ages 14 and 70 years in Bamenda 1, 2, and 3 councils who had heard about or were registered members of BEPHA. Questionnaires were administered using random sampling techniques to 400 respondents and 10 staffs of BEPHA were interviewed. Frequencies, percentages and the multiple regression analysis were used to analyze data. Findings: From the ten staff interviewed, 50% of them indicated that enrollment into BEPHA was average while 50% said it was low. The growth of BEPHA was said to be50% (average) by 60% of the staff of BEPHA while 40% of them said it was low. Multivariate regression model analysis results showed that enrollment had a significant positive influence on the growth of BEPHA with an estimated standardized coefficients of (β=0.624; p < 0.05). The study overall revealed that enrollment with BEPHA, determine the variations in the growth of the scheme. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: This study recommended that management of the scheme should amend some clauses within the scheme such as non-coverage of chronic health conditions, to attract more enrollment with BEPHA.