2015 health care outlook

Rapidly growing populations and per capita incomes, rising life expectancies, a high incidence of lifestyle-related diseases, and ambitious medical infrastructure projects are driving health care industry growth in the Middle East’s Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Yet, even though the region is making appreciable progress in its efforts to improve health care access and quality, pressure on available capacity is increasing and closing the wide gap between current and targeted states remains a top challenge in 2015. The health care workforce, especially physicians and nurses, remains mainly expatriates, and the region has a low penetration of health care insurance.