Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Public Health 2251-6085 46 9 2017 09 03 1247 1255 Shirin NOSRATNEJAD Tabriz Health Services Management Research Center, Dept. of Health Services Management, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran AND Iranian Center of Excellence in Health Services Management, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran Arash RASHIDIAN Dept. of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Ali AKBARI SARI Dept. of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Najme MORADI Food and Drug Administration, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran 2017 09 03 2017 09 03 Background: Complementary health insurance is increasingly used to remedy the limitations and shortcomings of the basic health insurance benefit packages. Hence, it is essential to gather reliable information about the amount of Willingness to Pay (WTP) for health insurance. We assessed the WTP for health insurance in Iran in order to suggest an affordable complementary health insurance. Methods: The study sample consisted of 300 household heads all over provinces of Iran in 2013. The method applied was double bounded dichotomous choice and open-ended question approach of contingent valuation. Results: The average WTP for complementary health insurance per person per month by double bounded dichotomous choice and open-ended question method respectively was 199000 and 115300 Rials (8 and 4.6 USD, respectively). Household’s heads with higher levels of income and those who worked had more WTP for the health insurance. Besides, the WTP increased in direct proportion to the number of insured members of each household and in inverse proportion to the family size. Conclusion: The WTP value can be used as a premium in a society. As an important finding, the study indicated that the households were willing to pay higher premiums than currently collected for the complementary health insurance coverage in Iran. This offers the policy makers the opportunity to increase the premium and provide good benefits package for insured people of country then better risk pooling.     https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/view/10998 https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/download/10998/5684