Comparing UAE and South Korea; Investigation of Healthcare Policies

• Executive summary
• Table of contents

1. Introduction

• Development of below description of the background and problem be investigated
• Brief description of body

2. Body
   • Methodology_literature review and case study (including occasion for literature review and case study. Later on, I’m going to do describe case study for UAE/South Korean mock cases)

• National wide Health care delivery system(framework)

General explanation_worldwide

• United Kingdom (UK)
• United States of America (USA)
• South Korea
• United Arab Emirates (UAE)

2.3 Health insurance system

General explanation_worldwide

• Comparison of Governmental national insurance/ private insurance (detailed description)
  • Governmental national insurance
  • Private insurance
• United Kingdom (UK)
• United States of America (USA)
• South Korea
• United Arab Emirates (UAE)

2.4 Comparison of South Korea and UAE

2.4.1 Recent history

2.4.1.1 South Korea

2.4.1.2 UAE

2.4.2 Economy

2.4.2.1 South Korea

2.4.2.2 UAE

2.4.3 Population (ratio of nationals)

2.4.3.1 Population and how the insurance works for nationals and non-nationals

2.4.3.1.1 South Korea

2.4.3.1.2 UAE

2.4.4 Difference between governmental hospital and private hospital in both countries

2.4.4.1 South Korea

2.4.4.2 UAE

2.4.5 Type of claim

2.4.5.1 South Korea

: KCD (including uncovered area after applying KCD)/ claim amount (fixed co-payments, coinsurance, deductible, ceiling, reference pricing system, tiered co-payment, etc)/

2.4.5.2 UAE

: Different between the insurance companies, charity is existing for low-income foreign workers, Triage 1,2 patients are treated free of charge in governmental hospital)/ claim amount (fixed co-payments, coinsurance, deductible, ceiling, reference pricing system, tiered co-payment, etc)

3. Findings

4. Conclusion

Reference (Harvard)

<<Aim of the report>>

The aim of this research is to investigate South Korean and United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s healthcare system delivery, and to compare the similarity and difference. Both country was colonized and became independent recently. Both governments introduced their healthcare policies, by their own circumstances. But from the short time period after independence, there was not enough time for maturation compared with other advanced countries. Another similar background is national wide health insurances. In this research, details of the insurance policies will be investigated, and the similarity and difference will be analyzed.

1. Background
2. Historical background of South Korea and UAE (United Arab Emirates).

South Korea and UAE experienced colonized situation and became independent recently. The economic shutdown happens to both countries in the mid-1900, South Korea by the war, and UAE by the economic circumstance. Both country had hard time for a couple of decades, one of the poor and under-developed country in 1950~1960s, and had experienced huge economic growth in less than 50 years. Socio-economic rules and laws, policies had not enough time to settle down for the both countries, as the society had had huge change in a short time.

1. Organization and structure of Health care delivery in South Korea

South Korea has its unique insurance system to cover most of the nationals. This program was introduced in the South Korean society from the insurance program to cover the industrial workers. The history of National insurance program started in 1977, while the nation is experiencing huge expanding economy. Although the startup of this program was by the third republic of Korea, under dictatorship of former president Park Chung-hee, as the political and social maturation, the program settled down and widen. In 1977, 8.8% of total population was covered by insurance (Kwon S, 2009), but the coverage was increased quickly and became 90% in 1990s, and National health insurance covers about 98% of total population in 2000s (Kwon S, 2009).

iii. Organization and structure of Health care delivery in UAE.

UAE is a federal of 7 emirates, leaded by a ruler of Abu Dhabi who is a president of UAE. From the history, each emirate was separated independent countries before 1971, after getting independence from United Kingdom. In 1971, the rulers of six emirates started to be united, and on the next year, Ras Al Khaimah, the seventh emirates joined the union. Basically, they started separately, while Abu Dhabi and Dubai had been developed earlier than the other emirates, they established and developed their own structures for healthcare. As a result, the structure of organizations and providers and developers over the country is complicated. Firstly, there are regulatory organizations of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and federal authority. And each has different provider and developer organizations.

1. The Problem to be investigated

The primary object of this research is to investigate South Korean and UAE’s healthcare system delivery, and to compare the similarity and difference. Both country was colonized and became independent recently. For South Korea, in 1948, and UAE in 1971. From the short history, both governments introduced their healthcare policies, by their own circumstances. Both provided national wide health insurances. In this research, details of the insurance policies will be investigated, and the similarity and difference will be analyzed.

The second object of this research is to find out common problem, and analysis of the policy or other governmental actions, related with this problem.

III. Literature Review

1. Historical background of South Korea and UAE (United Arab Emirates).

South Korea experienced dramatic economic growth after Korean War. South Korea was one of the poorest country in 1960, as the war destroyed almost all of the social overhead capitals, and infra. South Korean gross domestic product (GDP) was 3.95 billion in 1960, and 1.62 trillion in 2018 (The World bank, 2018). GDP per capital was 158 USD (United States Dollars) in 1960, and 31,363 USD in 2018. The GDP per capita stayed under 2000 USD till early 1980. During this period, South Korean president Chung-hee Park introduced the first 5-year economic development plan, followed by the second and the third. For the investment, South Korean nursed and miners were sent to Western Germany. Called ‘a miracle of the Han River’, South Korea achieved huge economic growth. In 2015, the GDP of South Korea ranked on 13th worldwide, GDP per capita is ranked on the 31st (World GPD ranking, 2019).

UAE was settled down as a union in 1971, after independence from Britain, by the readership of ruler of Abu Dhabi, His highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan (The United Arab Emirates’ government portal, 2019). Before the discovery of oil, the major product of UAE was pearl. But after development of Japanese cultured pearls, the natural pearl market was hit, and the economy of UAE was also affected hardly (pears and pearling, 2019). After Mikimoto Kokichi got the patent on Nishikawa’s technique to cultivate pearls, the technology was developed and applied commercially, and the product released to the market since late 1920’s (George C.D. 2008). UAE had to endure the economic depression for several decades, until they found out the oil in 1950s. After the first export of oil from Abu Dhabi in 1962, the UAEs economy become mostly to be based on oil exports. For example, in 2011, exporting goods and services counted 100.4% of total GDP, and 45% of exports was crude oil, followed by natural gas (Economy: United Arab Emirates, 2019). GDP of UAE was 14.7 billion USD in 1975, which was the earliest record in public, and it became 414.2 billion in 2018 (The World bank, 2018). GDP per capita of UAE ranked on the 22nd in 2014 (World GPD ranking, 2019).

1. Organization and structure of Health care delivery in South Korea

With the economic and social advancement, and the advance in the health care environment, the life expectancy rose from 52 years in 1960 to 79.6 years in 2011 (Hyun OS, 2012). 3 Figure 1 is showing the operating system of South Korean national health insurance. All the hospitals or health care institutions in South Korea is registered under National health insurance system, and all the payment for the medical services is done through insurance system. With this system, policies by the National insurance affects a lot on the medical service delivery.

iii. Organization and structure of Health care delivery in UAE.

Firstly, there are regulatory organizations of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and federal authority. The Ministry of Health (MOH) is the federal one, and the ministry of finance which is also a federal authority is involved in the health insurance of UAE healthcare sector (USUAE Business council, 2014). Abu Dhabi has the health authority of Abu Dhabi (HAAD) as a regulatory body. Dubai has the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), which is the regulatory body and operator of Dubai healthcare sector. DHA involves in policy development, managing license for doctors working in Dubai, as well as the hospitals operating in Dubai (US-UAE Business council, 2014).

Secondly, there are healthcare service providers and developers in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and federal. Over the county, the healthcare sector is divided between public and private providers. Abu Dhabi Health Services (SEHA) manages the government hospital in Abu Dhabi. DHA is doing similar role in Dubai (US-UAE Business council, 2014). For the other emirates, MOH is doing the role. Also there is a company owned by royal family of Abu Dhabi, Mubadala healthcare, is a governmental company owns many hospital chains and it is a branch of Mubadala group, that the main industry involved is oil (USUAE Business council, 2014). The health insurance system of UAE is Daman. This is the UAE national health insurance company in federal level. Daman is established in 2006 (US-UAE Business council, 2014). This company is owned by Abu Dhabi royal family, and managing the national wide insurance program which is named ‘Thiqa’ (The Thiqa initiative, 2019). The Thiqa offers health insurance program for whole UAE nationals. They provide insurance program based on the emirates, where the individual is registered.

1. Challenges of each country in healthcare sector

Regarding South Korea, the average out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure is above OECD average (OECD, 2016). The out-of-pocket expenditure of South Korea was 1.7 fold higher than the OECD average (OECD, 2016). The gap between South Korea and average of OECD countries is getting smaller. Out-of-pocket expenditure was 44% of total health expenditure in 2000, and was 33% in 2016 (WHO, 2016).

The UAE spends 1200 USD per person for the healthcare in early 2000s (US-UAE Business council, 2014), which made the rank of UAE among the top 20 countries in the world for healthcare spending. But every year, the health expenditure of UAE is increasing, and reached up to 1300 USD per capita (Global Health Expenditure Database, NA). The other issue in UAE is low volume of healthcare education. Licensed institutions including medical, nursing and dental care, only 6 institutions is providing education (List of licensed Institution in UAE, 2019). With this background, UAE is faced the limitation of gaining adequate knowledge and skills (US-UAE Business council, 2014). This could be related with higher incidence of metabolic diseases after independence, but also related with the health policy itself. As the UAE nationals do not pay to the hospital, there is no barrier to cut down unnecessary utilization of higher level facilities. The patients visit hospital more than needed, which result in increased healthcare expenditure.