RIYADH — The General Authority for Competition (GAC) announced that health insurance market in Saudi Arabia is witnessing a high concentration, as the market share for the biggest 3 companies reached 83% of the market, and this constitutes concerns on competition.
GAC’s announcement came while revealing the competitive evaluation of the health insurance market in the Kingdom and its most notable concerns about the competition levels.
The private health insurance covers about 30% of the working population, GAC said, while confirming that there has been a huge expansion in the health insurance sector recently.
The expansion came especially after the imposition on companies to provide a mandatory health insurance for workers and their families in the private sectors.
The GAC stated that the choice depends on several factors regarding the prices of health insurance policies or products, which include the entitlements and characteristics of the main insurance policy, the insurance companies’ strategy that issues insurance and the internal cost structure.
With regard pricing of the health care services, the GAC stated that this came as result of the individual contract negotiations between the health insurance companies and the health care services providers.
This is also a result of some regulatory oversight in the price negotiation process, GAC added, noting that there is no unified approach to cost estimation.
GAC said that the real price of the provided health care services differs from the prices that the Ministry of Health approves to the health care providers.
The difference between the prices comes due to the discounts obtained by some of the health insurance companies, where its total would reach 50% or 60% in some cases.
The GAC’s study has also revealed that the companies did not record any income in the past years, which note that the current competition may be vulnerable to market shocks.
The number of the main participants is limited, which may transfer the market into monopolistic competition, and that would result in the increase of the prices and lack of innovation.
GAC also added that the current competition is fragile, which might act as a magnet for the participants in the market to replace the current equilibrium of competition with explicit or tacit collusion, and through which, it would lead to increase in prices.
Read Also
- Shorooq Partners invests in Gulf Capital’s SANTECHTURE, the Leading HealthTech AI Based Revenue Cycle Management Software Company in Saudi Arabia and the UAE
(Dubai – February 14th, 2023) – Gulf Capital (“GC”), one of the largest and most active private equity firms investing from the GCC to Southeast Asia and Shorooq Partners, the leading seed stage venture capital firm in the MENAP region with over 60 portfolio companies across Fintech, Software, Platform, and Blockchain, have formed a pioneering […] - RIX Industries Life-saving Booster Technology Supplements Medical Oxygen Supply in Low- and Middle-income Regions
Benicia, CALIF – January 25, 2023 – RIX Industries, a leading developer of gas generation systems and energy technologies, today shared how its premium oxygen boosters are being leveraged in medical facilities that may not currently have the ability to invest in or maintain sophisticated and costly large-scale oxygen delivery systems. This can be particularly true […] - Vezeeta Reaches Profitability Milestone and Closes a New Growth Capital Funding Round, led by Gulf Capital with Participation from VNV Global
Highlights: The new funding comes after Vezeeta reached its profitability milestone and is set to accelerate Vezeeta’s organic growth as well as fund acquisitions and expansions across MEA. Despite the current global and regional economic challenges, Vezeeta remains well positioned with over 10 million patients across 80 cities and continues to unlock value for all […] - GAHAR Launches its Online Knowledge Bank (Elab) for Clinical Laboratories
The General Authority for healthcare accreditation and regulation (GAHAR) announced the launch of its first educational platform for clinical laboratories, Egyptian laboratories knowledge bank (Elab), as the first digital platform of its kind in Egypt, the Middle East and Africa, specialized in spreading knowledge of standards for accreditation of medical laboratories and training on these […] - Dedalus identified as a top multiregional EMR vendor used outside the US by KLAS Research
Milan (Italy) 25th July 2022, Dedalus is a leading Global Health Software(HealthTech) Company and one of the world’s largest companies in Digital Health. It offers open standards-based solutions across the whole continuum of care. Dedalus Group (Dedalus) is pleased to have been recognised by KLAS as one of the ‘leading top multiregional vendor, outside of […]
