A study of the factors affecting the acceptance of the use of telematics in health insurance : a local scenario

Abstract

The aim of this research is to determine the factors affecting the acceptance of the use of telematics in health insurance, whilst considering the Maltese market. This is done to address the lack of telematics’ use within the health insurance area. In order to be able to generate results, the researcher collected data quantitively through the use of surveys and asked several questions related to the adoption of telematics and other concerns related to the technology, such as data privacy issues, and premium setting. Exploratory Factor Analysis, Cronbach’s Alpha, Linear Regression and Friedman’s Test were used to be able to analyse the raw data collected and draw up conclusions. As a result, this study found that there are four factors that determine the acceptance of telematics in health insurance which are: the technological use associated with the use of telematics and its costs, the social influence on the use of the telematics, the effects of being tracked, sharing of data and price changes and lastly, data obligations of the insurer. All the factors were regressed with the independent variables of age, gender, educational level, area, income and having a health insurance policy, to determine if individuals are affected by them in adopting health insurance telematics. Moreover, the first factor is known to mostly affect the level of acceptance, which is the technological use associated with the use of telematics and its costs. Overall, this suggests that the results of this study are in line with what other studies concluded, with minor differences that may have been a result of the difference in culture.