| Title |
Healthcare Finance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Qualitative Study of Householders’ Attitudes
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, September 2017
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s40258-017-0353-7 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Mohammed Khaled Al-Hanawi, Omar Alsharqi, Saja Almazrou, Kirit Vaidya |
| Abstract |
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 5 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | 2 | 40% |
| New Zealand | 1 | 20% |
| Unknown | 2 | 40% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 4 | 80% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 20% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 191 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 191 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 32 | 17% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 14 | 7% |
| Researcher | 12 | 6% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 9 | 5% |
| Student > Bachelor | 9 | 5% |
| Other | 24 | 13% |
| Unknown | 91 | 48% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 30 | 16% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 18 | 9% |
| Economics, Econometrics and Finance | 12 | 6% |
| Business, Management and Accounting | 11 | 6% |
| Social Sciences | 8 | 4% |
| Other | 21 | 11% |
| Unknown | 91 | 48% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 14. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 August 2023.
All research outputs
#2,348,462
of 24,357,902 outputs
Outputs from Applied Health Economics and Health Policy
#90
of 821 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#44,454
of 322,137 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Applied Health Economics and Health Policy
#4
of 15 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,357,902 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 821 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.1. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 322,137 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 15 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 80% of its contemporaries.