Saudi Arabia health care costs expected to rise as private investors set prices

Saudi Arabia is expecting costs of healthcare services to rise after the country passed a decision granting private health institutions the right to set their own prices, said Hammoud Al-Rabei, director general of the service sector at the National Committee’s Health Council.

At least 70 percent of health facilities in the kingdom are owned by investors, not doctors, said Sami Abdulkarim, president of the National Health Committee at the coundil of chambers.

Allowing citizens to invest in the health sector won’t necessarily commercialize the industry; professional physicians must also be hired to regulate the medical sector, he was quoted as saying in Mecca newspaper.

The ministry of health recently approved a number of amendments to regulate health institutions across the kingdom, according to Argaam.

The new bylaws give investors-- who aren’t necessarily medical professionals-- the right to set prices at their hospitals and healthcare facilities.