Healthcare System in Saudi Arabia
Riyadh is the kingdom’s expat capital with an ever-rising population of expat residents from all over the globe. Riyadh and the whole kingdom provide an excellent standard of healthcare with out-of-the-state facilities. Although Saudi’s healthcare system does face a few struggles in keeping up with its pace with that of the Western healthcare facilities, the services provided from both the public and private sectors are regulated to be of excellent quality.
Expat residents in the capital have to access the private sector hospital and healthcare facilities. The kingdom’s private hospitals are generally composed of Outpatient Departments, Dentistry, Therapy Centers, Rehabilitation Centers, and Specialist Clinics. Expats can benefit from shorter queues, higher reach to English-speaking staff, and access to unique treatments when accessing private-sector care.
Health Insurance
As per 2015, it was made compulsory for all the non-nationals residing in the kingdom to have mandatory health insurance. The health insurance plan coverage for expats working in the private sector companies must be provided by their respective employers upon employment. However, most of these employer-provided insurance policies only provide standard basic coverage omitting medical, dental, or vision care. This has led many expats to purchase top-up premium health insurance with enhanced and comprehensive private coverages. Ideally, you should fully understand the medical insurance covered in your compensation package by your employer and whether the specific coverage can also be extended to your dependents.
What do you need to get health insurance?
Once an employer registers their expat employees for a health insurance plan, they shall receive a standardized health insurance card. This health insurance card then shall be utilized by the expats for private healthcare facilities, hospitals, treatment centers, and clinics. To obtain a health insurance plan in Saudi Arabia one may typically require the following documents;
- Passport/Valid Photo ID
- Residence permit/Visa
- Proof of Address
Health Insurance Policies
There are varying ranges of insurance policies for you to pick from. The price per policy and its coverage can differ depending on the insurance provider. Cheaper insurance policies are not widely accepted in prominent healthcare facilities of the kingdom, but they will be accepted in small-scale facilities. Ordinarily, the cheap insurance policies are prone to provide discounts to the services you obtain rather than cover it as a whole. Whereas, the expensive policies tend to provide sole coverage on the facilities and services you acquire along with added perks of private rooms, prescription lenses, specialized treatments, chiropractic and so much more.
Medicine in Saudi
The majority of the medicines in the kingdom are typically sold out without a prescription and can be brought in high doses. Medications are much cheaper and affordably priced than that of the surrounding neighboring countries of the kingdom. There are plenty of pills and medications that are banned in the country, some of them including sleeping pills, antidepressants, and the morning-after pill.
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