The Saudi plans to reform the national healthcare system

Bloomberg’s Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait and five other Bloomberg journalists spent five hours talking to Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh. In the wide-ranging interview*, Prince Mohammed the National Transformation Program, and the future of the national healthcare system. In this post I will share the transcript of the interview focusing on the plans for healthcare system in Saudi Arabia.

"Bloomberg: Between now and 2020, how much do you expect to generate and what are the measures that you will push to generate extra non-oil revenue?

Prince Mohammed: By 2020, we are aiming to have extra revenue exceeding $100 billion. We did a quick fix in 2015 which increased our non-oil revenue by 35 percent. This year, we’re trying to target over $25 billion. I believe we will succeed in achieving more than $10 billion in non-oil revenue in 2016.

Bloomberg: You’ve talked about privatizing many things as well as Saudi Aramco, can you give us some idea of which industries you’ll get to target first?

Prince Mohammed: The most important sectors are the healthcare and services sectors. Healthcare, we are trying to get rid of all the assets owned by the government and transfer them into a holding company. We are trying to push for more health insurance by convincing the citizens that services provided through health insurance are better than the free healthcare services, and faster for them. We will also transfer our health treatment programs abroad to domestic programs and we will also incentivize our partners abroad to invest in healthcare locally. Regarding the services sector, we have a number of entities that have privatized a lot of their services such as the interior ministry. We are trying to encourage the rest of the services ministries to follow in their footsteps. I believe we have the knowledge and the know-how.

Bloomberg: On the non-oil revenue measures, I assume VAT would be one of those measures. Could you share on record other measures?

Prince Mohammed: Yes, we have the sin tax, energy drinks and soda drinks tax. We are working on a specific program similar to the green card. Some fees might be on luxury items and as we said earlier, restructuring subsidies. So it’s a large package of programs that aims to restructure some revenue-generating sectors."

The main points the Deputy Crown Prince shared regarding the healthcare system:

1.  To dispose of all the assets owned by the government.
2. Transfer the healthcare assets to a holding company.
3. Promoting more health insurance
4. Transfer health treatment programs from abroad to domestic programs
5. Create incentives for healthcare investments for international partners 

It is a very ambitious plan, and it will no doubt ignite a lot of discussion among healthcare professionals, industry leaders, and citizens over the next few months ...Please leave a comments, and if you like it, like it and share

*The full transcript of Bloomberg interview