Maternal and infant health prepayment schemes in Shandong, China: a survey of demand and supply

Abstract

Maternal and infant prepayment schemes(MIPSs) appeared in China in the early 1980s, as a way of helping women to set aside adequate funds for childbirth. The responsibility for design was devolved to the county level, and many different approaches have been applied. For this and other reasons, there has been no consensus on important matters such as the level of prepayment, the range of covered services, and whether township health centres or family planning stations should operate the schemes. We aimed to clarify some of the uncertainty by conducting combined analyses of cost, willingness to pay, and willingness to supply. We used structured survey instruments to interview 4271 households with children aged under one year, and 18 township health institutions. Our analyses suggest that the ideal prepayment should be higher and the range of covered services should be wider than the current average, and that health centres rather family planning stations should operate the schemes.