Panel To Work On Reform Of Thai Healthcare Funds

[webfact]

Panel to work on reform of healthcare funds

By Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation

In a bid to cope with ballooning expenditure on healthcare, the new government panel tasked with arranging financing will reform the management of three healthcare funds to make them more effective.

The new panel, chaired by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, will study measures to improve financial management and medical services for the three funds - the National Healthcare Scheme, which covers 48 million people; the Social Security Scheme which provides medical services to 9 million employees; and the Civil Servant Medical Service covering 5 million civil servants.

"The panel will not focus on how to merge these three healthcare schemes. We just want to find methods to manage them effectively," said the director of the Nation Healthcare Financing System Development Office, Dr Tiam Angsachon.

The panel will also focus on increasing the number of medical staff, as Thailand is now facing a shortage of medical workers in state hospitals.

The panel on Monday appointed two subpanels -one to find a way to develop financial strategy and policy, chaired by prominent economist Ammar Siamwala; and the other to develop a mechanism to communicate more effectively with the public, chaired by former Health Department officer, Dr Narongsak Ankasuwapala.

The panel will take three years and spend about Bt320 million to revise and develop healthcare financing.

Health System Research Institute's director, Dr Pongpisut Jongudomsuk, said the government should focus on increasing budget for health promotion and disease prevention, along with medical services.

Pongpisut said the allocation for health promotion and disease prevention had decreased from 20 per cent of the National Health Security Office's perhead budget in 2002, to 12.6 per cent in 2011.

"We found that the budget for medical treatment was 10 times higher than the budget for health promotion and disease prevention over the past few years," he said.

Supatra Nakaphew from the Thai NGO, Coalition on Aids, said the panel should find ways to reduce the inequality of medical services and accessibility between the country's three healthcare funds.

She said if the government could not merge three healthcare schemes into a single fund to provide medical services, it should compel each scheme to provide the same basic services for their subscribers.

Former senator Dr Jetn Sirathranont said merging three healthcare schemes into a single fund would have both a positive and negative impact on the country's healthcare system.

On the one hand, the Kingdom would have a single healthcare fund to provide the same standard of basic medical treatment to all Thais; but on the other hand there would be no competition among state healthcare insurers to improve medical services.

"Merging would create a healthcare services monopoly and would affect civil servants," he said.

-- The Nation 2011-03-24