Knowledge of health insurance benefits among male expatriates in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objectives:To measure expatriates’ knowledge of health insurance benefits with respect to outpatient, inpatient, prescription drug, and dental services, and to link this knowledge to sociodemographic and employment characteristic.Methods:Cross-sectional, face-to-face interviews were conducted from March 2015 to February 2016 with a stratified random sample of 3,398 male insured expatriate workers in the private sector of Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Descriptive analysis, one-way ANOVA, and linear regression were used to interpret data. Data on knowledge of health insurance benefits was compiled by adding the scores of the 4 service category items (outpatient, inpatient, prescription drug, and dental services) to those of the 5 objective knowledge items on copayments.Results:More than 87% of the participants reported knowledge on their health insurance benefits coverage for outpatient, 62% for the inpatient, 86% for the prescription drug and 62% for the dental services. However, 7.5% knew the correct copayments for general practitioner, 64% for the outpatient (inclusive), 13% for the inpatient visits, 15% for the prescription drugs and 9.6% for the dental care. Most personal and job characteristics had associations with knowledge measures. A total of 55% of the overall knowledge variance was explained by the independent variables (R2=0.55), suggesting that other factors also influence knowledge.Conclusion:Expatriates’ knowledge of their health insurance benefits is very limited, which indicates the importance of developing a policy for increasing this knowledge among expatriates in Saudi Arabia.

The association between insured male expatriates’ knowledge of health insurance benefits and lack of access to health care in Saudi Arabia

“…The Jine Choi study showed that, compared with Filipino and Korean immigrants, although Marshallese immigrants had lower socioeconomic status including lower income and health education, they had better access to health care because they had the highest health insurance enrollment rate among the three groups. However, as reported by Alkhamis [ 10 ], socioeconomic factors like income and education are important contributing factors in increasing expatriates’ knowledge of health insurance benefits.…”

“…Income and education levels influence expatriates’ knowledge of health insurance benefits although the level of direct influence on access to health care was found not significant. Although this study identified four variables associated with lack of access to health care, it is well documented that other variables contribute indirectly to expatriates’ lack of access to health care such as personal and job characteristics, have been associated with expatriates’ knowledge of health insurance [ 10 ].…”

“…Finally, the role of employers in increasing their expatriate employees’ access to health care is very important, as supported by studies from different contexts [ 37 ], whether by increasing their knowledge of health insurance benefits [ 10 ] or by increasing their access to health insurance [ 34 ].…”

“…Other independent variables were also considered, including personal and job characteristic variables. The full descriptions of each category have been elaborated in a previous study by Alkhamis [ 10 ].…”

“…There is evidence from different contexts that the minority populations are more likely to have a poor understanding of health insurance schemes [ 10 – 13 ]. However, these studies did not investigate the degree to which expatriates’ or minorities’ lack of health insurance knowledge influenced their access to health care.…”