Knowledge of health insurance benefits among male expatriates in Saudi Arabia

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 (R(2)=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.