Health Insurance and Access to Care in Southern Area of Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia Research Paper 2022

Running head: HEALTH INSURANCE AND ACCESS TO CARE IN SOUTHERN AREA
OF RIYADH CITY, SAUDI ARABIA
Health Insurance and Access to Care in Southern Area of Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia
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HEALTH INSURANCE AND ACCESS TO CARE IN SOUTHERN AREA OF RIYADH
CITY, SAUDI ARABIA
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Significance of the Study...........................................................................................................2
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................3
Importance of Health Insurance and access to health care....................................................3
The current health services provided to Riyadh population...................................................4
Access to health services in the season of pilgrimage...........................................................6
Health Insurance in Riyadh....................................................................................................6
References:.................................................................................................................................8

HEALTH INSURANCE AND ACCESS TO CARE IN SOUTHERN AREA OF RIYADH
CITY, SAUDI ARABIA
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Introduction
There is an increasing awareness of the fact that ill-health or illness keeps conserve
poverty. Access to quality and comprehensive health care services is very important for the
promotion and maintenance of health while preventing the occurrence of disease and
managing it. The first step in this process is gaining an entry into the health care system,
which is usually done through the health insurance coverage. It is to mention that one of the
key aims of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) is providing all the people throughout
the world with equal and unbiased access to PHCS (Primary Health Care Services) (Alfaqeeh
et al., 2017). There are many developing nations such as Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Thailand
etc. who are been implementing different forms of health insurance schemes in recent times
(Amu et al., 2018). The primary objective behind this is to ensure that everyone in the
country, especially the poor, have effective access to health care. One of such countries is
Saudi Arabia. There is a high demand for providing better healthcare facilities to the rapidly
increasing population of Saudi Arabia. The lack of trained healthcare professionals and high
dependability on the foreign workers are two of the most notable aspects that the
policymakers of the country have to deal with. Riyadh is the capital city of Saudi Arabia and
is well known for its readiness and availability of manpower in the healthcare system.
This paper shall elaborate on presenting a literature review on the health insurance
and access to care in Southern Areas of Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia. It shall assess the works
and studies of multiple researchers on the topic highlighting the current scenario of the place.
Significance of the Study
It is to note that the Saudi Arabian health care services have been given a significant
priority by the government. Promotion of good and quality has always been a key part of
health care programs in Saudi Arabia (Aldosari et al., 2018). For this reason, the health care

HEALTH INSURANCE AND ACCESS TO CARE IN SOUTHERN AREA OF RIYADH
CITY, SAUDI ARABIA
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system in the country has been greatly improved in the recent decades. Notwithstanding this
fact, a huge number of issues pose challenges to the country’s health care system. These
issues range from shortage of professionals in certain parts of Saudi Arabia, multiple roles of
health ministry, very limited financial resources, high demands for care, change in disease
patterns, and absence of national health information system etc. Hence, despite of the fact
that the health system of Riyadh is a comprehensive one, which covers all the citizens,
studies have found that the access to health care is not as convenient as it is expected. This
calls for attention as the degree of accessibility to the health system is the direct indicator of
its responsiveness. The study shall highlight the gaps in the process of accessing health
insurance and health care facility in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Literature Review
Importance of Health Insurance and access to health care
According to Davis Giardina et al. (2014), access to health services is all about “the
timely use of personal health services to achieve the best health outcomes”. The primary step
in this process is gaining an entry into the health care system, which is usually done through
the health insurance coverage and then accessing a particular location where the required
health care services is provided (the geographic availability). As per World Health
Organisation (2018), access to the health care services impacts the mental, social and
physical well-being of an individual. It also affects the quality of life he or she is living.
There are many barriers to health services including lack of service availability, high cost of
care, lack of insurance coverage and shortage of culturally competent care. It is to mention
that health insurance is one of the types of insurance coverage, which pays for surgical,
medical and sometimes, dental expenses that are incurred by the insured. It is of great help
for the insured as it can either reimburse him or her for expenses that are incurred from the