Patient willingness to pay for preventive measures in primary care: a study of five GPs in a German community

Summary

Objectives:To explore the willingness of patients in a usual primary care setting to pay out-of-pocket fees for their own health promotion, in correlation with risk factors and net income, and compared to patients of an educational programme.

Methods:A standardised health survey carried out in five general practices (GPs) of a small community with a special GP-based health education programme was combined with a questionnaire to explore the special attitudes of patients from a practice sample (n=973) and from educational courses (n=202): covering, in addition to cardiovascular risk factors, the sociodemographic factors, net income, and out-of-pocket fees that could be spent for own health promotion.

Results:After attending an educational programme, the patient’s willingness to spend 15–40 €/month for their own health promotion was high but there was no correlation with the income (p<0.56), in contradiction to the patients of the practice sample who would pay more money the more they earn (p<0.001). High levels of cardiovascular risk were associated with low education (p<0.001), but net income and willingness to pay for preventive measures did not significantly correlate with cardiovascular risk factors.

Conclusions:Participants of educational courses are willing to pay a rational out-of-pocket fee for preventive measures without correlation with their incomes, thus reducing the social gradient; future preventive measures should take into account that reasonable cost sharing is well accepted by well-informed patients.