The Policies of Medical Insurance Companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Medical insurance companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia The development boom occurring in the KSA has resulted in the steady growth of its population. The increased development of infrastructure has prompted a need for a larger workforce, leading to the employment of many expatriates in the KSA. This huge expansion of the workforce, along with the increasing population, has drastically increased the demand for healthcare services. At the same time, there has been a significant increase in the costs of healthcare services in the KSA. Improving the health insurance system in the KSA, which was first introduced in 1999, is the only viable solution for this issue and is anticipated to be the primary objectives of the government’s healthcare division. Primary objective because the government is expected to cater for the growing population, and change the dynamics of the insurance system because times have changed. A resolution was passed in 1999 to establish a healthcare insurance system with the aim of providing healthcare services to the public as well as to expatriates working in the private sector (Barakah and Alsaleh 2011). This resolution was passed as the Saudi Cooperative Health Insurance Act, which ensures the provision of services to both Saudi and non-Saudi KSA residents (Barakah and Alsaleh 2011, p.8). Since the Act was passed the health care system in the KSA has notably improved, which can be credited to the country’s increasing wealth as well as the government’s efforts to provide high-quality healthcare services to the public. Moreover, the KSA’s policy of providing free access to health care services to the general public has helped to ensure that the entire population has equitable access to those services. According to KSA law, all citizens are entitled to free medical services (Abaker et al. 2019), which are provided by the National Medical Care System via a number of government agencies. Much effort has been devoted to educating and training KSA medical health professionals, and several nursing, medical and health institutions have been established in order to provide high-quality health care. Healthcare services in the KSA are delivered with the help of three major providers: the Ministry of Health (MOH), a network of hospitals (including military and security force hospitals) and the National Guard (Alkhamis and Miraj 2018). In addition to the government institutions, a few private organisations are playing a growing part in providing healthcare services. There are many health insurance providers in the KSA. One of them, the MOH, is entrusted with providing curative, rehabilitative and preventive health care to the KSA population. The MOH also provides primary health care services in the KSA with the help of a network of medical care centres. The government has increased the MOH’s budget for providing training sessions and scholarship opportunities and frequently offers MOH employees the opportunity to further their studies at international universities (Almalki et al. 2011). Due to the Cooperative Health Insurance (CHI) Act, in 2005 medical insurance became compulsory for all non-Saudi organisations operating in the country; non-compliant organisations are subject to a fine and could also be barred from continuing to operate in the KSA (Balkhi et al. 2019). The challenges faced by healthcare services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Although the KSA government has taken many steps to improve the services provided by healthcare facilities, these centres still face many obstacles in implementing quality management to effectively provide their services. The first obstacle concerns how healthcare institutions are financed: The public sector is responsible for providing most healthcare services through the Ministry of Finance, but the MOH often struggles with administrative problems which hamper the effec