Price controls will hurt medical hub goal, private hospitals warn

[worgeordie]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

because these prices contained hidden costs not shouldered by other operators. 

 

Hidden costs = exorbitant profits , like with most things in Thailand,

they will do well with more patients coming from abroad like 3rd

World countries who do not have decent hospitals and doctors,

they will then start raising their prices ,until they are the same

as the West or Singapore,another example of shooting themselves

in the foot.

regards worgeordie

[gamini]

11 hours ago, Arkady said:

If Thailand is already getting over 4 million patients from overseas, the goal of becoming an international medical hub has already been achieved. So no concerns there. If prices are controlled, even more patients will want to come from overseas, making it an even bigger and better hub.

 

Private hospitals have a captive market for drugs which is a huge advantage over pharmacies that charge less. So what are their hidden costs that justify charging more? They remain hidden because he declined to elaborate. Normally they say they have to stock exotic drugs with lower turnover but they can still sell them and at higher margins than the common drugs. There was once a move to force hospitals to allow patients to fill prescriptions outside the hospital but that had been dropped this time for some reason.

 

The argument that Thais can just forget access to private healthcare, unless they billionaires, apart from being unfair, doesn’t wash because the government schemes cannot cope. Private hospitals pricing middle class Thais out forces more people into government healthcare putting even more strain on it. Therefore government must act to control prices in order to protect its own schemes.

 

Basically Thai hospitals earn a bottom line net profit margin that is twice as high as private hospitals in developed markets and continue raise prices faster than inflation to protect and enhance their margins. The inevitable result of this will be that their will eventually become uncompetitive and will kill their medical hub. Many Thai doctors are quite incompetent relative to developed countries and recommend unnecessary treatment in an unethical way. Accountability is way below international standards. Super wealthy Thais already know this and go to the US, Europe or Australia for major operations.  In time foreign patients will start figuring this out too and go elsewhere. Meanwhile hospitals in neighboring countries will improve. Now is a good time to reform and regulate Thai private hospitals before they kill the golden goose.

I have been admitted to 3 of Thailand's best private hospitals and they are all very much better and superior to England's famous London clinic(also a private hospital.) I was 2 weeks in the latter , and recently my brother died in this hospital). The service and attention that we both got there, is nothing like in the Thai hospitals. And it was about 3 times the price of Bumrungrad. Many would consider Bumrungrad. One of the best hospitals in the world and many people do come from all round the world to get treatment there.