Universal Healthcare Essential, Asean+3 Health Ministers Say

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Universal healthcare essential, Asean+3 health ministers say

PONGPHON SARNSAMAK

THE NATION

PHUKET: -- Asean and its key partners Japan, South Korea and China yesterday jointly decided to make universal health coverage an essential provision for the more than 2 billion people living in the region.

This joint statement was made at the 5th Asean+3 Health Ministers Meeting held yesterday in Phuket. The countries discussed means of implementing joint activities in the health sector, especially in terms of universal health coverage, sharing their concerns and expressing their commitment to strengthening this collaboration.

They agreed that the universal health coverage played a crucial role in reducing poverty and giving people access to essential health services.

All participating health ministers said they were committed to establishing an Asean+3 network on universal health coverage, as well as to share and collectively build a national as well as regional capacity to assess and manage an efficient health system that supports universal health coverage.

They will also bring up the issue of universal health coverage at a forum with the United Nations.

The ministers also said that Asean and its key partners should focus on cooperating over issues such as prevention and control of communicable diseases, emergency response mechanisms, mitigating health impacts of natural disasters, food safety, human resource development for health, traditional medicine development and pharmaceutical development including vaccines.

Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri said yesterday that his counterparts praised Thailand's successful implementation of the universal health coverage scheme over the past 10 years. The universal health scheme in Thailand has provided more than 48 million people with essential medical services and has reduced their financial burden.

Witthaya said Thailand would transfer its knowledge to help regional countries, including Japan, South Korea and China, fully implement universal health coverage. He added that Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos were also interested in the universal health scheme.

Meanwhile, Vietnam's Health Minister Dr Thi Kim Tien Nguyen said his government had set its sights on providing universal health coverage by 2020, which would cover poor people, minority groups and children under the age of six.

"We will learn from Thailand because it is experienced in implementing universal health coverage," she said.

Vietnam is planning to reform its healthcare system and will work on improving its primary care services and strengthening prevention programmes for emerging diseases as well as infectious and non-communicable conditions like heart disease, cancer, hypertension and mental health, she added.

Laos Public Health Minister Prof Dr Eksavang Vongvichit said his country had issued a decree on national health insurance and financing strategies to ensure equity and easy access to healthcare. Laos is hoping to have its universal health coverage scheme in place by 2020.

"The key direction is to shift from the direct out-of-pocket mechanism to the universal coverage of health," he said.

Asean+3 health ministers will next meet in 2014 in Vietnam.

-- The Nation 2012-07-07

[rotary]

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

[crazydrummerpauly]

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Been working for 60 years in the UK and improved the lives of millions of citizens who would have been left to rot if the pre-WW2 situation had been allowed to persist after 1945.

[joseph49]

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Been working for 60 years in the UK and improved the lives of millions of citizens who would have been left to rot if the pre-WW2 situation had been allowed to persist after 1945.

can you please tell me what free health care is available to

thai national ? ....if any,,,

[brianP]

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Been working for 60 years in the UK and improved the lives of millions of citizens who would have been left to rot if the pre-WW2 situation had been allowed to persist after 1945.

can you please tell me what free health care is available to

thai national ? ....if any,,,

In USA, all you need to do is sneak in and speak spanish and food stamps are thrown in too!

[Cardiff1963]

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

It works very well if you can't pay for private medical care

[animatic]

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Tell that to the French where it works great.

[animatic]

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Been working for 60 years in the UK and improved the lives of millions of citizens who would have been left to rot if the pre-WW2 situation had been allowed to persist after 1945.

can you please tell me what free health care is available to

thai national ? ....if any,,,

Thais can go to any government hospital and be taken care of.

As far as the health system is able to.

It was 100% free under the Dems,

But PTP returned to 30baht health care,

which actually has higher administration costs to run vs. free...

because it was 'a Thaksin idea'...

first mentioned in Parliament by Dem. Chuan 4 years earlier of course.

Edited July 7, 2012 by animatic

[crazydrummerpauly]

Animatic :

Thais can go to any government hospital and be taken care of.

As far as the health system is able to.

It was 100% free under the Dems,

But PTP returned to 30baht health care,

which actually has higher administration costs to run vs. free...

because it was 'a Thaksin idea'...

first mentioned in Parliament by Dem. Chuan 4 years earlier of course.

"Thais can go to any government hospital and be taken care of. As far as the health system is able to." And on a couple of occasions i have wandered into my local government hospital, and was treated courteously, efficiently, by young doctors with very good English, at very low cost. After falling out of bed with trouble breathing one night, i got on the m/bike and arrived at the hospital at 5 am, and after they'd shaken themselves out of a doze, all the staff were great. Was taken to X-Ray - after being forced to sit in a wheelchair i didn't need by the porter - and enjoyed being scanned by a monster cream-coloured machine that was definitely anitque but worked fine. I was assured i had bronchitis but did not have TB (!), and was given 2 lots of antibiotics which i did not take - bronchitis in most cases being treatable by rest and fluids, which it responded to fine. I completely agree - they do their best - "As far as the health system is able to." As a life-long believer in universal health-care free at the point of need, i'm very happy to pay the government hospitals in Thailand a few baht for drugs i might not need, if it helps in a small way to keep them running.

[SOEYCHANLOY]

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Been working for 60 years in the UK and improved the lives of millions of citizens who would have been left to rot if the pre-WW2 situation had been allowed to persist after 1945.

can you please tell me what free health care is available to

thai national ? ....if any,,,

Thailand's health care for Thais is worth 30 bahts.

You get for what you pay!

Sent from my GT-S5830T using Thaivisa Connect App

[tlansford]

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

works great in France and Germany.

[tlansford]

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Tell that to the French where it works great.

Are you familiar with the French Sécurité Sociale?

You could be making an informed and serious comment, or you could be making an uniformed and inaccurate attempt at irony...

It is hard to tell which is the case...

[animatic]

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Tell that to the French where it works great.

Are you familiar with the French Sécurité Sociale?

You could be making an informed and serious comment, or you could be making an uniformed and inaccurate attempt at irony...

It is hard to tell which is the case...

Dude, I lived there for 10 years, and had a company.

My wife's family had two doctors and a psychiatrist amongst the 130 of them.

My wife ran the office for two of them. I also had major medical procedures there.

I also lived in USA, I think I am properly experienced to comment pro or con.

Edited July 8, 2012 by animatic

[tlansford]

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Tell that to the French where it works great.

Are you familiar with the French Sécurité Sociale?

You could be making an informed and serious comment, or you could be making an uniformed and inaccurate attempt at irony...

It is hard to tell which is the case...

Dude, I lived there for 10 years, and had a company.

My wife's family had two doctors and a psychiatrist amongst the 130 of them.

My wife ran the office for two of them. I also had major medical procedures there.

I also lived in USA, I think I am properly experienced to comment pro or con.

Dude, ... That's why I asked.

As you are then well aware, the French get lampooned for their "socialist policies" such as the health care system. It wasn't clear if you were being serious or joking.

[Mosha]

Private health care really looks good for infant mortality rates in the USA. Communist Cuba has a better survival rate, according to the CIA factbook.

[animatic]

quote name='rotary' timestamp='1341638230' post='5461758']

Gosh you would think they would look at some Western countries and see this universal health care system does not work. Great idea on paper, bad idea in the real world.

Tell that to the French where it works great.

Are you familiar with the French Sécurité Sociale?

You could be making an informed and serious comment, or you could be making an uniformed and inaccurate attempt at irony...

It is hard to tell which is the case...

Dude, I lived there for 10 years, and had a company.

My wife's family had two doctors and a psychiatrist amongst the 130 of them.

My wife ran the office for two of them. I also had major medical procedures there.

I also lived in USA, I think I am properly experienced to comment pro or con.

Dude, ... That's why I asked.

As you are then well aware, the French get lampooned for their "socialist policies" such as the health care system. It wasn't clear if you were being serious or joking.

I was responding to the classic american knee jerk conservative line thrown out by rotary. And is in my opinion totally uninformed. I thought that was more than obvious.

Edited July 8, 2012 by animatic

[tlansford]

- deleted -

Are you familiar with the French Sécurité Sociale?

You could be making an informed and serious comment, or you could be making an uniformed and inaccurate attempt at irony...

It is hard to tell which is the case...

Dude, I lived there for 10 years, and had a company.

My wife's family had two doctors and a psychiatrist amongst the 130 of them.

My wife ran the office for two of them. I also had major medical procedures there.

I also lived in USA, I think I am properly experienced to comment pro or con.

Dude, ... That's why I asked.

As you are then well aware, the French get lampooned for their "socialist policies" such as the health care system. It wasn't clear if you were being serious or joking.

I was responding to the classic american knee jerk conservative line thrown out by rotary. And is in my opinion totally uninformed. I thought that was more than obvious.

well, it would be obvious if it were generally known that you lived there for 10 years, etc, but otherwise Rotary might have just as easily given you a big "like" for making a good joke.

And yes, the general level of American information about universal health care is woefully uninformed and lacks understanding about the most basic facts.

[chops]

What a sad sad disgrace my former homeland has become. Even Africa will have universal health care before america does.

america is the last place I want to be this century. Sure glad I left.

[chops]

Private health care really looks good for infant mortality rates in the USA. Communist Cuba has a better survival rate, according to the CIA factbook.

america is a role model for NOBODY!!!

[Yunla]

NHS free health service, and their rapid-response ambulances and hardworking staff have saved my life approximately fifteen times since the 1970s when I've had epilepsy resulting in flatline, I have woken up in the back of a lot of NHS ambulances with total strangers saving my life for free. Hence them being referred to as Angels.

The NHS which suffered terribly under the lawyerheaded obsessions of Blair, and struggles under a huge number of patients, was and is still a remarkable institution. Obviously it has flaws, if people expect guaranteed perfection for free they are dreaming. But as a safety-net and a reliable support system for the poor and the middle class, the NHS is truly a miracle and a 'labour of love' worked on by generations of goodhearted people.

Thailand could do a lot worse than emulate aspects of the NHS. And of course they should scrap the ridiculous 30bt fee PTP reintroduced, which is meaningless and wasteful.

Edited July 9, 2012 by Yunla

[Thai at Heart]

I was responding to the classic american knee jerk conservative line thrown out by rotary. And is in my opinion totally uninformed. I thought that was more than obvious.

Absolutely correct. Just because it is hard to do, doesn't mean it isn't something that a developed country should aspire to. I don't understand well enough why the US has such extraordinarily high insurance rates beyond feeling that there is massively profitable and politically influential insurance industry behind it.

Poopooing the systems in Europe as some kind of communist, death committee (yes that was on Fox News) system belies the enormous social benefits it brings to the country. Of course it is costly, but worth every penny in my opinion.

[crazydrummerpauly]

In my mind, it is difficult to think of a darker preventable human predicament, than to be already suffering poverty, and then to be plunged into despair by an illness that requires treatment one simply cannot pay for. That is to load suffering on suffering, and i find its persistence anywhere absolutely grim. Some may say that torture is a worse 'preventable human predicament'. It is unattractive to play a rating-game pitting one calamity off against another, so instead i would just suggest that being chronically ill without the means to pay for medical help is in itself, a form of 'torture'. I'm so grateful to have been born into a 'welfare state' with a socialised national health service, and since its existence is still so recent in the history of human communities, it should be positively valued and defended against the political-economic forces which are always hovering with daggers-drawn. Folks in S-East Asia are often unaware of just how recent and short-lived is the 'affluence and security' enjoyed by working people in the West. Many of us are still connected in experience and memory to times when conditions for working people were little different to those experienced by some poor people in Asia today - especially if, like me, one has a mother born in 1917, (and i had my own food Ration-Card in the 1940s.) And in a comparison between poor working-class families in the UK living in Urban areas in the pre-1960 era, and poor families living in Rural areas in Thailand - it is the former who often struggled more to obtain a decent diet both in terms of quantity and quality. E.g., fruit was a rarely-consumed luxury, and a chicken was a once-a-year (xmas) treat ! Anyone else remember 'bread & dripping' for tea ? A 'balanced diet' meant getting equally disastrous amounts of Fat and Sugar on a daily basis. So let no-one get complacent or smug or forgetful...health and other forms of security are all still relatively recent arrivals when seen inside the full story of the human history of most people. Stepping down off the soapbox now..... wishing health and happiness to all.

[animatic]

It seems understanding subtle irony is becoming a lost art.

[tlansford]

I was responding to the classic american knee jerk conservative line thrown out by rotary. And is in my opinion totally uninformed. I thought that was more than obvious.

Absolutely correct. Just because it is hard to do, doesn't mean it isn't something that a developed country should aspire to. I don't understand well enough why the US has such extraordinarily high insurance rates beyond feeling that there is massively profitable and politically influential insurance industry behind it.

Poopooing the systems in Europe as some kind of communist, death committee (yes that was on Fox News) system belies the enormous social benefits it brings to the country. Of course it is costly, but worth every penny in my opinion.

worth every penny indeed.

For a country to save money on social safety nets is penny wise, pound foolish.

[hellodolly]

Private health care really looks good for infant mortality rates in the USA. Communist Cuba has a better survival rate, according to the CIA factbook.

america is a role model for NOBODY!!!

It was my understanding that Cuba had a great medical system just no medicine's. I believe that Obama has loosened the conditions on shipping medicines to Cuba.

I am familiar with the Canadian system in British Columbia and the states. What is needed is a policy blending the best of both. I have been told England is similar to the One in British Columbia.

Makes no difference what country you are in if you need emergency treatment you get it now. If it is not Emergency in BC get in line My friend waited over a year for a triple bypass surgery. I have been told England is In the same condition. In the States if it is not emergency who are you insured with is the first question. If no insurance and not a emergency you have to start saving up your money just to get a routine Physical.

What is needed is a affordable policy with a reasonable amount of expedience. Canada has the price and the states has the now service.

If Thailand was to really care about it's health service to the people they would do well to look at what many countries do and try to draw the good points out of them and get rid of the bad points.

Edited July 9, 2012 by hellodolly