The health care workforce, especially physicians and nurses, remains mainly expatriates, said the Deloitte's report titled '2015 global health care outlook: Common goals, competing priorities'.
According to the report, the region is making efforts to improve health care access and quality and closing the wide gap between current and targeted states remains a top challenge this year.
"Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries depend heavily on government funding to meet health care needs. In Saudi Arabia, for example, the government accounted for 65.8 per cent of health care spending in 2012, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO)," said Julian Hawkins, partner in charge for Consulting at Deloitte Middle East.
The report also finds that health care, education and social services continue to be priorities in the UAE's federal budget.
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In terms of health care, UAE nationals are covered under the government-funded health care program, whilst expatriates have to pay for private health care insurance.
"Governments are responding to this imperative by introducing programs and incentives to encourage private sector growth, optimise current operations and leverage technology to raise the quality of health care services in GCC countries," he added.
The GCC is a regional intergovernmental political and economic union. Its member states are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.