Abstract:
The objective of this study was to investigate the role of health care
affordability on health care equity in Makueni County, Kenya. The study was
based on theory of inverse care law. The study applied cross-sectional survey
and phenomenological research designs. Qualitative and quantitative
techniques were used to design data collection methods. Yamane (1967)
formula was used to get the sample size of 400 health care consumers.
Purposive sampling technique was used to sample the health care managers
and officials in the county health care workers and administrators. To sample
the 400 universal health care consumers, proportionate stratified random
sampling technique was used to get respondents from the three selected sub counties (Kaiti, Kilome and Makueni Sub-Counties). Both structured and und
unstructured Questionnaires were used to collect data from the beneficiaries
of Universal Health Care using face to face method. Interviews were
conducted with the county health department officials and the health care
workers in public health care facilities. Findings from the study showed that
the cost of health care services affected its distribution in the County. Policy
makers were recommended to come up with policies which can equip health
centers with enough resources i.e. human resource, supplies and capital in
order to increase affordability and accessibility of health care.
