Minister Explains Health-Scheme Policy

[Lite Beer]

Minister explains health-scheme policy

THE NATION ON SUNDAY

BANGKOK: -- Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri yesterday stood in for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on her weekly TV programme to clarify to the Thai public that members of the country's three main healthcare schemes had equal rights to treatments for illnesses including kidney disease.

Witthaya also said the ministry would next month launch a project in which people could hand in old medicines in exchange for eggs in a bid to prevent people from using expired drugs.

The Labour, Finance and Public Health ministries are working together to ensure good services and equal treatment rights for members of the civil service fund, the universal healthcare scheme and the Social Security Office's fund, Witthaya said. Officials were working to have all three schemes provide the same standard of AIDS treatment and prevent new HIV/AIDS cases, and similar discussions were being held regarding cancer treatments, he said.

The merging of treatments under the three schemes was aimed at eliminating unnecessary spending, he said, adding that the quality of services would remain high. He said the government each year had to pay Bt270 billion for medicines, many of which weren't necessary, and that the money saved could be spent on improving medical tools or doctor quality.

Insisting that drug quality wouldn't be affected by the merging of treatments, the minister said officials would discuss the list of essential medicines to determine realistic and appropriate pricing, as well as the amount of prescription medicine to be kept in stock. This should solve the issue of patients "drug shopping" at various hospitals after being prescribed medicines for the same illness, he said.

-- The Nation 2012-06-24

[Pib]

BANGKOK: -- Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri yesterday stood in for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on her weekly TV programme to clarify to the Thai public that members of the country's three main healthcare schemes had equal rights to treatments for illnesses including kidney disease.

Or said another way, currently there are major differences in level of care. Hopefully the fix will be making the 2 of 3 schemes which offer lessor care increase their level of care to the best scheme. I sure hope it don't result in the 2 schemes offering the better care to be pulled down the the scheme offering the least level of care, which is also quite possibly the lowest cost scheme budget-wise to the govt.

[madmitch]

Mustn't forget to get the missus to collect up all the old medicine bottles (we must have dozens!). Free eggs.

On a more serious note, unless I am misunderstanding something, if healthcare is to be the same for all, is there any point in Thai employers, specifically smaller companies and individuals, paying the social security amounts if their employees would now get exactly the same treatment on the government's healthcare scheme?

I agree with Pib above and if the level drops then the only winners will be the health insurance companies.

[rubl]

Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri yesterday stood in for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on her weekly TV programme to clarify

This has happened so often, that it seems appropriate to rename the TV programme. Maybe 'Saturday not with the PM'?

[waza]

Fake Viagra, and more, in Bangkok

BANGKOK, Thailand — Little is real in Patpong, a glowing bazaar and sex district here in Bangkok. The Gucci is fake, the DVDs are pirated and the go-go girls tell every man he’s handsome.

Drugs too are sold here openly. Not speed or cocaine, but Viagra — or at least diamond-shaped, blue pills that resemble the real thing. After dark, one aging female vendor displays dingy Viagra boxes at her stall to attract customers......

Though Viagra is one of the most common knock-offs, it’s much less worrisome than fake meds to fight malaria, tuberculosis and even HIV. They often contain little or no active ingredient. The result: Sickness, fatalities and a host of drug-resistant viruses.

“It might contain the correct active ingredient, but the wrong dose. Or it might contain nothing at all,” said Clemence Gautier, consultant at the Bangkok-based law firm Tilleke & Gibbins. The firm specializes in prosecuting counterfeiters for clients that include pharmaceutical firms Pfizer, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline..........

The scope of counterfeit meds is difficult to gauge. But the World Health Organization has said that, in the worst-affected parts of Southeast Asia, as many as 30 percent of pharmaceuticals are lacking the stated active ingredient. This covers outright fakes, expired meds and even pills made improperly by well-meaning but barely regulated factories.

Perhaps she didnt attend because she was dealing with this issue.