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Compare and Contrast the US and KSA Health Care Systems

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Introduction

Health refers to a state of complete mental, physical, and social well-being and not just

the absence of disease (Leonardi, 2018). Exploring the nature of primary care is important to

understand the nature of the services that are provided to patients and identify the primary

care providers. Included in primary care are health promotion, the prevention of diseases, the

maintenance of health, counseling, patient education, and the diagnosis and treatment of

chronic and acute illnesses in different healthcare settings. The role of primary medicine is

longitudinal for the patient without regard for the presence or absence of disease. In Saudi

Arabia, an important aspect of health policy in recent times has been to enable the provision

of more care in community settings to reduce the rates of referral to secondary care settings.

Primary care is usually the first point where people come into contact with the healthcare

system. It is instrumental in the provision of comprehensive, community-based, and

accessible care that meets the healthcare needs of the population. The Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia needs to create its primary healthcare services based on the specific needs of its

citizens. This research paper compares and contrasts the healthcare system in the Kingdom of

Saudi Arabia to that of the United States of America. In doing that it defined the healthcare

system of each country, evaluates the private insurance market of each country, identifies the

challenges faced in each of the two healthcare systems, and presents recommendations for

addressing the challenges.

The Healthcare Systems of KSA and the USA

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Currently, Saudi Arabia provides healthcare free of charge to all the citizens of Saudi

Arabia as well as expatriates who work in the public sector. This is done through the Ministry
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of Health in conjunction with other governmental health facilities. There is a requirement that

the expatriates who work in the private sector should have part of their healthcare insurance

paid for by their employers (Al Asmri et al., 2020). In Saudi Arabia, healthcare is considered

a right. The funding of healthcare in the country is done primarily by the public (755) by

using out-of-pocket expenditures (25%). One of the distinctive factors in the healthcare

system of Saudi Arabia is the low level of private insurance involved in healthcare provision.

Almost all the private expenditures by citizens in accessing healthcare have been out-of-

pocket payments for the services they get in clinics and private hospitals (Rahman, 2020).

Funding from the government is mainly allocated through annual budgets to individual

programs and ministries. Additional funding for special health projects and programs may be

allocated through royal decrees.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has very few specialized institutes that deal with medical

research. The only medical scientific research center in the kingdom is one located at the King

Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center. This research center gets its funding through

the hospital from the government. The research it is involved in focuses primarily on

cardiovascular diseases, cancer, infectious diseases, genetics, and environmental health. An

interesting aspect of Saudi Arabia's healthcare is that the country serves over 5 million visitors

and pilgrims to the Holy Mosque located in Makkah (Al Asmri et al., 2020). The government

of Saudi Arabia provides pilgrims with free health services through the country’s Ministry of

Health. Over 5 million people come to Makkah every year from different parts of the world

during the month of Ramadan to perform religious activities. In 2005, over 250,000 pilgrims

were treated in the Ministry of Health programs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Al Asmri et

al., 2020). The Ministry of Health assigns a given number of hospitals as primary care centers
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for the service of pilgrims during their pilgrimage. Many healthcare personnel are involved,

including nurses, allied health personnel, and physicians

United States of America

The healthcare system of the United States is not universally accessible. It is funded

both publicly and privately with many fragmented programs and systems. Insured Americans

are covered by both private and public health insurance (LiPuma & Robichaud, 2020). Most

of the insured Americans, however, are covered by private health insurance through their

employers. Some of the vulnerable population groups in the United States are covered

through government-funded programs such as Medicaid and Medicare. The government of

the United States also provides public funding through the military and Indian Health Services

(Hansen & Baroody, 2020). Although the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was introduced

in 2010 to increase the number of Americans with healthcare insurance, about 33 million

Americans are still uninsured, which stands for 10.4% of the entire population of the country.

Although the primary source of financing for the United States healthcare system is

private, public funding also plays a major role. A breakdown of the sources of payment for

the United States healthcare system in 2013 reveals some interesting facts. Analysis shows

that public players, including the state and federal governments, account for 46% of all the

healthcare expenditures while private third-party payer sources account for 27%, with

households paying the remaining 27% (LiPuma & Robichaud, 2020). However, there are still

other estimates that show that 60.5% of the healthcare expenditure in the United States is paid

for by public sources. Such estimates take into account the federal tax subsidies for

government purchases of private insurance for employees in the private sector and tax

subsidies for private insurance (Hansen & Baroody, 2020). What this implies is that the
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funding that comes from the government in the United States healthcare system is of a

significant proportion.

The United States spends more private and public money combined in funding its

healthcare system than any other OECD country. In 2013, 16.4% of the Gross Domestic

Product of the United States was used in funding healthcare. The countries that followed the

United States in terms of the percentage of GDP used in funding healthcare were Switzerland

and Netherlands, each at 11.1% (Menon & Mishra, 2018). Unfortunately, the higher

healthcare spending in the United States does not translate into better health outcomes for the

population. The United States consistently ranks lower in various healthcare aspects when

compared to its peers around the world. Such aspects include life expectancy and infant

mortality rate. The major challenge is the lack of universal coverage for its population. This

leads to healthcare inequality between different populations on such aspects as healthcare

resources, access, and health outcomes (LiPuma & Robichaud, 2020). The fragmented

approach to financing and the delivery of care also lags behind other countries in health

information technology introduction. However, the count of money spent in the healthcare

system has some benefits for the fully insured. There is a large and well-trained workforce,

including high-quality medical specialists. However, there are few primary care specialists to

meet the demand for primary care services (Hansen & Baroody, 2020). The country has

excellent research programs and healthcare facilities.

The challenges that are faced in the healthcare systems of both the kingdom of Saudi

Arabia and the United States of America can be addressed by training more primary care

specialists and setting up more primary care centers to address the discrepancy between the

demand and supply of primary care services. The United States needs to work on its insurance
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programs to ensure increased access to care for all citizens so that the high expenditure spent

on the healthcare system can translate into better health outcomes for the citizens of the

country.
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References

Al Asmri, M., Almalki, M. J., Fitzgerald, G., & Clark, M. (2020). The public health care

system and primary care services in Saudi Arabia: a system in transition. Eastern

Mediterranean Health Journal, 26(4).

Hansen, S., & Baroody, A. J. (2020). Electronic health records and the logics of care:

complementarity and conflict in the US healthcare system. Information Systems

Research, 31(1), 57-75.

Leonardi, F. (2018). The definition of health: towards new perspectives. International

Journal of Health Services, 48(4), 735-748.

LiPuma, S. H., & Robichaud, A. L. (2020). Deliver us from injustice: Reforming the US

healthcare system. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 17(2), 257-270.

Menon, J., & Mishra, P. (2018). Health care resource use, health care expenditures, and

absenteeism costs associated with osteoarthritis in the US healthcare

system. Osteoarthritis and cartilage, 26(4), 480-484.

Rahman, R. (2020). The privatization of the health care system in Saudi Arabia. Health

services insights, 13, 1178632920934497.