New health insurance system will save time, cost: experts
The mandatory health insurance for expatriates is expected to have various benefits and would certainly reflect positively on the quality and speedy delivery of health services to the inhabitants of the country, a number of doctors and officials at some provide hospitals and clinics have pointed out.
They told local Arabic daily Arrayah the benefits of the new system will include easing the load and demand on the government health sector facilities and dramatically reducing the waiting lists of the patients there. It could also create a state of healthy competition among the private health service providers for the benefit of the customers and patients.
It could also create a better system of organisation, where the people could go directly to the targeted health service provider, which helps in saving time and cost.
Issam Hjaj, administrative director of Al Hayat Medical Centre, said that making many health service providers available as options for the patients and customers would certainly ease the demand on the already overloaded government health facilities. This would eventually make getting the services more accessible for larger numbers of people.
In the meantime, he stressed that the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) maintains constant communication with the private health facilities and is keen on ensuring the highest standards of quality for the services offered to the public.
Dr Abdelelah al-Adimi, medical director of Al Emadi Hospital, expected that the implementation of the health insurance law will help develop and further regulate the health sector in the country.
He said that under the new health insurance system, Qataris would get adequate services at the government health facilities as the load on these will be considerably eased.
Dr Khalid al-Uzum, medical director of the Turkish Hospital, expected that the new system will eventually end the waiting lists issues as the patients would be able to have more options and speedy classification for the proper services they require.
He stressed that the health insurance system will reflect positively on all the inhabitants of the country. Besides, the MoPH is keen to constantly communicate with the various concerned private health facilities to review their latest preparations for compliance with the necessary regulations and standards of the new system.
Dr Mohamed Ossama, medical director of Al Jazeera Medical Group, pointed out that the new system is set to create an effective and fair structural mechanism of delivering the targeted health services.