"Thaksincare" Healthcare is not so flawless and worth the rural votes without consideration!

[ALFREDO]

Nearly free healthcare "THAKSINCARE" in Isaan. Still brings a lot votes!

Downside, not enough money in the 30 Baht scheme!

The local Amphur-District hospitals do nearly nothing by themselves,

(except first aid, being a large distributor of prescription med. and other medicine and change of dressing)

they have not so personal, doctors and equipment, the resources,

as soon as it is getting a bit tricky,

nearly all operations are sent to the "elephant" in the provinces capital city.

In Udon Thani in the Public Hospital, I was patient myself after a motorbike accident.

The only Falang patient I recognized in my days and visits there later!

How can it be, that you have rooms and rooms, same in a military field hospital,

with patients with broken bones, bed after bed, waiting in long line for their relief operation!

My GFs mother 65 had to wait stationary in bed with a broken thigh for 15 days! until she was operated!

In AEK Udon Hospital the OP was offered to her in less than 24 hours, but for 180.000 Baht.

Not enough resources!

I was operated with my broken wrist right and metacarpal break left, hours after accident,

as, I was a paying patient!?

Edited May 26, 2014 by ALFREDO

[ALFREDO]

Here the "waiting position" for 15 days!

[baboon]

And it is the fault of Thaksin, a man I have no time for, that state healthcare is underfunded and possibly badly administered, in 2014? Come on!

[AYJAYDEE]

it may be unsatisfactory but its a whole lot better than it was 20 years ago when a poor farmer died at home in pain for lack of medication.

[Rooo]

Moved to health.

[bunnydrops]

No, its not perfect-- but YOU have a choice. I was a Navy brat. When I got sick I would go to the Dispenseriy and wait with all the other crying children or get an appointment with a private doctor. Most the doctors here work in several hospitals, government and private. If in a hurry, pay and see them at the private, if not see them at the government. Example--I recently had to have an operation, saw the doc at the government, she was booked up for 3 weeks, went to the private and she did the operation the next day. Stop complaining and be glad YOU have a choice.

[Issangeorge]

I think it depends on the hospital. My district hospital is limited in what they do, but it has a very good orthopedic surgeon and a general surgeon. I needed a cataract operation, they sent me to the provincial hospital and I had the operation there. The operation was a month after I first went to the district operation, but probably could have been quicker as I took two weeks to go to the provincial hospital, I could have gone the next day.

Ever since Thaksin started the ฿30 scheme there have been complaints that it was under funded, but those complaints are in just about every country.

I am no Thaksin fan, but he did a few good things, such as the ฿30 scheme.

Sent from my i-mobile IQ 6 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Thai at Heart]

Westerner complains that national health service in 3rd world country isn't good enough?

My lord, we have trying in the west to.get it right for 100s of years and it still isn't there. At the end of the day, its massively better than what it was for the patient.

[h90]

yes it was better under Surayut and Abhisit, but Thaksins proxy government had to cut costs.

Before the 30 Baht scam it was fair priced and you got a good service.

Actually that Thaksincare was planed by the Democrats but they couldn't do it because the former government (again with Thaksin in the government) led to the 1997 crises.

[Sheryl]

It is well known that the system is underfunded (as are most national health schemes, I might add).

AFAIK there has not been any cut in funding under the more recent governments. Funding levels remain inadequate to the need but not worse than previously, if anything perhaps a tad better.

No question that even with its under-funding, the present situation is a vast improvement for the majority of the Thai population. Long waits in overcrowded hospitals still beats no access to treatment at all, which was the prior norm.

I have never heard the Thai universal health care system referred to as "Taksincare" nor have I ever heard anyone claim or suggest it is "flawless". Please do not attempt to politicize this.

[billd766]

Strangely enough the Democrat government under Abhisit scrapped the 30 baht fee as it was costing more to collect and administer, so they made it FREE.

That wonderful caring sharing puppet PTP government put the 30 baht charge back not long after they got into power but neither government put extra money into the scheme, nor far that matter did the Army in 2006 or Thaksin when he was in power.

[h90]

It is well known that the system is underfunded (as are most national health schemes, I might add).

AFAIK there has not been any cut in funding under the more recent governments. Funding levels remain inadequate to the need but not worse than previously, if anything perhaps a tad better.

No question that even with its under-funding, the present situation is a vast improvement for the majority of the Thai population. Long waits in overcrowded hospitals still beats no access to treatment at all, which was the prior norm.

I have never heard the Thai universal health care system referred to as "Taksincare" nor have I ever heard anyone claim or suggest it is "flawless". Please do not attempt to politicize this.

I think we have spoken about that already, I have 2 examples from Bangkok which comes very close to "no access". Before you would have paid 300 Baht and get something. But of course there are numerous positive examples as well.

But that would be a political topic and here is the wrong forum and in general it is the wrong time.......

Good or bad, lets hope it further improves

[CaptHaddock]

Unsubstantiated opinion from the Thaksin haters is a poor basis on which to evaluate a public health program. A group at Mass. Institute for Technology studied the public health effects of the 30 baht scheme for the first year in which it was implemented. They found:

Few problems in developing countries are as gut-wrenching as high infant mortality — and yet it is a problem that has solutions. A policy change in Thailand’s health care system has quickly led to significantly lower infant mortality rates among less-wealthy citizens, as a study co-authored by MIT economists shows.

“It’s a very dramatic shift,” says Robert Townsend, the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT, and a co-author of a new paper outlining the findings. The study was conducted along with Jon Gruber, an MIT professor of economics and health care expert, and Nathaniel Hendren, an economist at Harvard University.

The researchers found that Thailand’s “30 Baht” program, which increased access to hospitals, led to a 13 percent drop in infant mortality in about a year. That change seems largely attributable to fewer infant deaths in rural areas, where previously the poor might never have entered hospitals to seek care.

The paper, “The Great Equalizer: Health Care Access and Infant Mortality in Thailand,” recently published in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.

http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/how-health-care-plan-quickly-lowered-infant-mortality-0430

[piersbeckett]

Strange way to open a topic - I was waiting for the punch-line. My Thai partner says that the public hospitals provided a similar standard of service before the 30 Baht scheme was implemented but the scheme made it cheaper for poor people.

My experience is that after her (in the doors) Mum was taken ill we took her to the local public hospital where she was treated but the next day her (the Mum's) condition was a lot worse so we took her to a private hospital (Anan Ruampad) in Surin where it was explained to my partner that at the public hospital Mum had received treatment inappropriate for her condition and had we not got proper diagnosis when we did, death was likely to have ensued. For the doubters and I am among you, I wasn't present at the admission and both myself and my partner were satisfied with the private hospital's explanation.

Secondly, some years ago prior to the above events I had a accident while riding my pushbike resulting in a deep wound to my left toe and went to the local public hospital (in another region of Thailand) where I was treated - after about a week and a half the wound not showing enough (in my view) signs of healing I toddled off to the private hospital. Same thing - treatment received at public hospital, in this case, totally inadequate - to save the toe a minor op' was necessary followed by regular hospital visits to check progress and re-dress wound.

Lucky for me and 'Mum' that I had the money - as in education, the infrastructure is there but because of low pay sufficient key staff aren't.