JEDDAH/ABU DHABI: The transformation of the Saudi economy is expected to bring better services and more insurance coverage for the country’s health care sector, according to a report in a Gulf-based newspaper earlier this month.

The report highlighted the details of the health sector overhaul, which includes a greater move toward privatization under the measures outlined in Vision 2030 by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier this year.

Vision 2030, and the National Transformation Program 2020 (NTP), aims to diversify the country’s sources of income away from its current dependence on oil. Prince Mohammed’s interview with Bloomberg was also cited, where he outlined now the economy would be restructured, including encouraging multinationals to invest in the country.

The report gave further details of the SR268-billion NTP, the operational plan for Vision 2030, which included boosting investment in the primary care segment, increase health information technology spending and the target to increase private sector contribution spending to 35 percent in 2020 from the current 25 percent. The government would also push for training programs for Saudi nurses and support staff to reach 150 per 100,000 of the population from the current 70.2.

The report quoted a Dubai-based investment bank as saying that the Saudi Arabian health care market is projected to reach $27.4 billion in 2020, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 11 percent from 2015.

It also stated that there were several companies eying opportunities in the Kingdom, with one company’s representative quoted as saying that it was an “exciting” time for private sector role players, but who also felt that time was needed for the Kingdom’s health sector to “mature.”

“Health insurance is compulsory in Saudi Arabia with a regulation from 1999 to provide it for non-Saudi residents. Citizens and residents in the private sector are also covered by compulsory insurance. Citizens working in the government receive free coverage in government health care centers and public hospitals. It is this category of consumers that private international health insurance companies expect to tap,” the report in the newspaper stated.

In the competitive Saudi market, companies are developing products for new clientele. “We are mainly focusing on creating new products that cater for local government employees and visitors (to the country) who have to have insurance when visiting the Kingdom,” a spokesman for Jeddah-based Bupa Arabia was quoted as saying.

Bupa Arabia, which entered the country in 1997 as a joint venture between BupaGlobal and Saudi Arabia’s Nazer Group, has about 3 million members. Bupa Global is the international insurance arm of British private health care group Bupa. “By transferring health treatment abroad into domestic programs, treatment becomes more accessible to the majority of the society,” the Bupa Arabia spokesman said.

Another global insurance company, US-based Cigna, which operates in Saudi Arabia in alliance with Saudi Arabian Insurance Company (Damana), expects to launch products tailored to the needs of the Saudi expatriate community, the report stated.