Health Services and Hospitals Administration Department, Faculty of Economics and Administration, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship Group, Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.
Health Econ Policy Law. 2020 Jan;15(1):72-93. doi: 10.1017/S1744133118000191. Epub 2018 Jun 4.
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.
沙特阿拉伯的大部分医疗服务都是由公共医疗保健部门通过卫生部提供的，该部门的资金每年由政府总预算提供，而政府预算主要来自石油收入。沙特阿拉伯的公共医疗服务存在人员过载、过度使用和短缺的问题，这可能导致人们对当前公共医疗服务的质量不满意。本研究使用条件价值评估法来调查沙特人民对改善公共医疗服务质量的支付意愿。本研究还确定了支付质量改进意愿与受访者人口统计学和社会经济特征之间的关系。在五个月的时间里，研究人员使用经过预测试的访谈者管理问卷从吉达省的 1187 户家庭户主那里收集了数据。采用多阶段抽样方法招募参与者。部分 Tobit 回归和相应的边际效应分析用于分析数据。这些实证分析表明，大多数样本愿意为公共医疗服务的质量改进支付费用。本研究的结果可能对政策制定者有用，帮助他们确定优先事项和资金分配。
