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. 2018 Feb;16(1):55-64.
doi: 10.1007/s40258-017-0353-7.

Healthcare Finance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Qualitative Study of Householders' Attitudes

Mohammed Khaled Al-Hanawi  1   2 , Omar Alsharqi  3 , Saja Almazrou  4 , Kirit Vaidya  5
Affiliations

Healthcare Finance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Qualitative Study of Householders' Attitudes

Mohammed Khaled Al-Hanawi et al. Appl Health Econ Health Policy. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Background: The public sector healthcare system in Saudi Arabia, essentially financed by oil revenues and 'free at the point of delivery', is coming under increasing strain due to escalating expenditure and an increasingly volatile oil market and is likely to be unsustainable in the medium to long term.

Objectives: This study examines how satisfied the Saudi people are with their public sector healthcare services and assesses their willingness to contribute to financing the system through a national health insurance scheme. The study also examines public preferences and expectations of a future national health insurance system.

Methods: A total of 36 heads of households participated in face-to-face audio-recorded semi-structured interviews. The participants were purposefully selected based on different socio-economic and socio-demographic factors from urban and rural areas to represent the geographical diversity that would presumably influence individual views, expectations, preferences and healthcare experiences.

Results: The evidence showed some dissatisfaction with the provision and quality of current public sector healthcare services, including the availability of appointments, waiting times and the availability of drugs. The households indicated a willingness to contribute to a national insurance scheme, conditional upon improvements in the quality of public sector healthcare services. The results also revealed a variety of preferences and expectations regarding the proposed national health insurance scheme.

Conclusions: Quality improvement is a key factor that could motivate the Saudi people to contribute to financing the healthcare system. A new authority, consisting of a partnership between the public and private sectors under government supervision, could represent an acceptable option for addressing the variation in public preferences.

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Conflict of interest statement

Funding

This work was supported by King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in terms of a PhD scholarship for MA.

Informed consent

Consent was secured from all respondents who participated in the study.

Conflict of interest

Mohammed Al-Hanawi, Omar Alsharqi, Saja Almazrou, and Kirit Vaidya have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This research study has been reviewed and given a favourable opinion by Aston University Research Ethics Committee. The study was designed and conducted in accordance with the ethical principles established by Aston University. In addition to ethical approval from Aston University, the study also received ethical approval from the MOH in Saudi Arabia.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Framework for the analysis of healthcare financing arrangements, developed by Kutzin [16]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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