BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The essence of insurance is compensating damages and replacing uncertainty with peace of mind; and insurance, as a way of dealing with risk, is a response to insecure and risky situations. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of supplemental health insurance on family quality of life.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out in 2014-2015 (Hijri year 1393) using 380 families of Babol city (Mazandaran Province, Iran) in two groups; those benefiting from supplemental health insurance and those without supplemental health insurance. Quality of life (QOL) was studied and compared between the two groups using WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire. The score range was between 24 and 120. Scores lower than 60 were considered as low quality of life and scores higher than 60 were considered as high quality of life.

FINDINGS: Mean quality of life score for the group with supplemental health insurance was 86.75±10.77 while it was 68.07±13.43 for the people without supplemental health insurance (p<0.001). Out of 254 families that experienced high quality of life, 242 individuals had supplemental health insurance, whereas out of 126 families that experienced low quality of life, 64 individuals did not have supplemental health insurance (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION: Results of the study demonstrated that having supplemental health insurance enhances the quality of life.