My wife unfortunately had to leave Australia in a hurry to be at her Mothers bedside as she was taken seriously ill in Bangkok. Her Mother is an elderly lady who has the gold card and as such is covered by the 30 baht health system. She was admitted to Thammasart Hospital near Rangsit. Her Mother is seriously ill and has been hospitalised for nearly 5 weeks there and now the time has come where the hospital has asked for her to be moved into the family home.

After about 30 days the family was informed that the real bill could come to as much as 100,000 baht, this is for all the care, ICU, Surgery and everything else but not to worry as the 30 baht system would cover her. This is terrific for us as this hospital is second to none and I've seen it, it is a first class place.

My wife visited her Mum everyday for hours and as a Thai citizen she thought that whilst she was there she would see to getting her teeth done too. She had 5 seperate visits to the dentist at that hospital to fix up all her problems, (they do not do it all at once as for 30 baht they need to see as many people as possible and simply try to only spend minimal time on each person in order to give everyone a fair go at getting their problems fixed.) Although it is a University type hospital and students are in training everyday on the job it is still first class.

I sit here in Australia paying bucket loads of money to get me covered for health and dental and then still do not get first class service like that. My question is how long can it last like this in Thailand? This must cost the government a fortune. Who is funding this? The Thais do not pay anything like the taxes we pay yet they got a better service and system. How long can it last? Is it sustainable? Where does the money come from?

Until the day after the next election