TY - JOUR
T1 - Willingness to pay for improved public health care services in Saudi Arabia
T2 - a contingent valuation study among heads of Saudi households
AU - Al-Hanawi, Mohammed Khaled
AU - Alsharqi, Omar
AU - Vaidya, Kirit
PY - 2020/1
Y1 - 2020/1
N2 - The bulk of health care service provision in Saudi Arabia is undertaken by the public health care sector through the Ministry of Health, which is funded annually by the total government budget, which, in turn, is derived primarily from oil revenue. Public health care services in Saudi Arabia are characterised by an overload, overuse, and shortage of medical personnel, which can result in dissatisfaction with the quality of the current public health care services. This study uses a contingent valuation method to investigate the willingness of Saudi people to pay for improvements to the quality of public health care services. This study also determines the association between the willingness to pay for quality improvements and respondents’ demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. A pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 1187 heads of household in Jeddah Province over a five-month period. Multi-stage sampling was employed to recruit participants. Partial Tobit regression and corresponding marginal effects analyses were used to analyse the data. These empirical analyses show that the majority of the sample was willing to pay for quality improvements in the public health care services. The results of this study might be of use to policymakers to help with both priority setting and fund allocation.
AB - The bulk of health care service provision in Saudi Arabia is undertaken by the public health care sector through the Ministry of Health, which is funded annually by the total government budget, which, in turn, is derived primarily from oil revenue. Public health care services in Saudi Arabia are characterised by an overload, overuse, and shortage of medical personnel, which can result in dissatisfaction with the quality of the current public health care services. This study uses a contingent valuation method to investigate the willingness of Saudi people to pay for improvements to the quality of public health care services. This study also determines the association between the willingness to pay for quality improvements and respondents’ demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. A pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 1187 heads of household in Jeddah Province over a five-month period. Multi-stage sampling was employed to recruit participants. Partial Tobit regression and corresponding marginal effects analyses were used to analyse the data. These empirical analyses show that the majority of the sample was willing to pay for quality improvements in the public health care services. The results of this study might be of use to policymakers to help with both priority setting and fund allocation.
UR - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/health-economics-policy-and-law/article/willingness-to-pay-for-improved-public-health-care-services-in-saudi-arabia-a-contingent-valuation-study-among-heads-of-saudi-households/7E574C18CDF4C5553B221A137AC61671
U2 - 10.1017/S1744133118000191
DO - 10.1017/S1744133118000191
M3 - Article
SN - 1744-1331
VL - 15
SP - 72
EP - 93
JO - Health Economics, Policy and Law
JF - Health Economics, Policy and Law
IS - 1
ER -