Healthcare Insurance impact on Access to Care

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW
LITERATURE REVIEW
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LITERATURE REVIEW1
Literature review
Healthcare Insurance impact on Access to Care in Southern Area of Riyadh City, Saudi
Arabia
Several factors are necessary for a reasonable access to healthcare, like the availability of
the health care services in a community, personal health beliefs and behavior (Hoffman &
Paradise, 2008). However these features are often overshadowed by the fact, whether an
individual can meet the expense associated to health care treatment. Health care insurances
assists people to access medical facilities and also protects the families from the huge burden of
the medical costs.
People who are not under the cover of any medical insurances are likely to avoid medical
treatment, even if it is necessary (Alkhamis, 2013). It has been documented by the studies, that a
clear relationship lies between the less use of medical facilities and no health insurance (Kasper,
Giovannini, & Hoffman, 2000).
This study have specifically selected the topic of whether the health care coverage have
influenced the access to health care in the southern part of Riyadh, in the kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. The main change that has occurred in the funding of the health care has begun with the
introduction of the health care insurance. The current system of `health care starts from 1950,
when the `Ministry of health (MOH) was developed with the responsibility to provide healthcare
to the entire population (Al-Hanawi, 2017). This exactly similar to the humanitarian and the
ethical principles of other countries like UK. Under these model, care is provided free to the
public like the services and the supply of medical goods. Some of the other examples of
countries where the health care system has remained purely public is Canada. Although, I has

LITERATURE REVIEW2
been critiqued that Canada had been using an approach of social insurance (Qutub, Al‐Jewair &
Leake, 2009). The NHS in United Kingdom, is one of the most prominent example model by the
government (HM Revenue and Customs, (2017). Although NHS is being funded by the general
taxation, a proportion of the funding is taken from National insurance. Similarly, the KSA
Government utilizes the revenues generated from the taxes for financing the infrastructure. The
Health Insurance council of KSA was developed in the year 2002, to implement the mandatory
health insurance in various phases of health care. Walston, Al-Harbi and Al-Omar (2008) have
stated that Saudi Arabia , had been providing complete and universal access for about a decade
and how the introduction of the health insurance have reformed the health care system of KSA.
The primary insurers for the health insurance in Saudi Arabia includes MedGulf Arabia, Bupa
Saudi Arabia and Tuwania. It has been claimed by Almalki, M., FitzGerald and Clark, (2011),
that the medical insurance in Saudi Arabia comes at a reasonable cost than some of the other
countries.
KSA have started to implement the unified health insurance scheme since 2016, and the
system was fully established in the year 2017 (Almalki, M., FitzGerald & Clark, (011). The
rolling out of the mandatory health insurance to the private sector employees took place in
several stages (Khaliq, 2012). As per the Council of Cooperative Health insurance (CCHI),
which is an independent governing body that has been built for regulating the health insurance in
KSA. All the KSA employers in the private sector employees in Saudi Arabia had took place in a
varieties of stages. According to December 2018, there are about 27 insurance companies that
are operating in Saudi Arabia and the total number of insured person in KSA is about
10,801,693. About 2 million was added to the total number of insured people (Khaliq, 2012).