Another 3 private hospitals to pull out of the “gold card” healthcare scheme

By Chalarntorn Yothasmutra

 

 

BANGKOK: -- As many as 100,000 gold-card holders are likely to be affected when three private hospitals in Bangkok pull out of the universal healthcare scheme in October.

 

Public Health Minister Dr Piyasakol Sakonsattayathorn, however, played down the pullout of the three private hospitals in Bangkok namely Bangna 1, Panya and Vibharam-Pakkred, saying it is quite normal, but their action must not affect people who have to rely on their services.

 

Earlier, privately-owned Mahesak hospital has pulled out of the scheme, but the Social Security Office has tried to arrange for other state hospitals and health offices of the City Administration to accommodate the healthcare need of some 109,000 gold-card holders who used to receive medical service at Mahesak hospital.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/three-private-hospital-out-of-uhc/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2017-08-29

Quote

Dr Piyasakol said he would propose the board of Social Security Office to amend regulations requiring hospitals which want to pull out of the scheme must notify the office or the Public Health Ministry one year in advance instead of 30 days in advance.

Maybe he should spend his time finding out WHY they are pulling out, and decide if that requires action.

Is it normal for hospitals to pull out of the scheme, does this happen all the time, what reason did the hospitals give?

 

Increasing the notification period does not help much if, at the end, no hospital participates in this scheme anymore and the gold card becomes worthless.

10 minutes ago, Bob12345 said:

Maybe he should spend his time finding out WHY they are pulling out,

the thai way is to view things on the surface, root causes are not germane

Is this the healthcare scheme now not being made availble to Thai citizens ?  Perhaps the connections of these major hospital owners are being utilized to slowly restrict the medical facilities available to the poor perhaps ?

 

Or is it that these hospitals, which I thought followed a code of medical ethics,  are demonstrating clearly that it is "the bottom line" that matters most,  not the poor ?

Edited August 29, 20178 yr by Esso49

Or it could be that their affluent urban middle class customers don't like mixing with poor people.

30 minutes ago, Bob12345 said:

Maybe he should spend his time finding out WHY they are pulling out, and decide if that requires action.

Is it normal for hospitals to pull out of the scheme, does this happen all the time, what reason did the hospitals give?

 

Increasing the notification period does not help much if, at the end, no hospital participates in this scheme anymore and the gold card becomes worthless.

Must be a money thing, maybe they don't get enough money for the work they do for the patients. Why else pull out, or maybe they just get more money from privately insured clients. I thought the gold card was an upgrade of the 30bt scheme for public servants and the likes (could be wrong here)

As far as I'm aware it's just a fancy name for the old 30 baht (universal coverage) scheme. Per Wiki:

 

"Universal health care is provided through three programs: the civil service welfare system for civil servants and their families, Social Security for private employees, and the universal coverage scheme that is theoretically available to all other Thai nationals."

 

... originally known as the 30 baht project ... People joining the scheme receive a gold card ... .

 

Incidentally, the original article refers to problems with the Social Security Scheme:

 

 " ... similar problem also occurred with the social security programme with at least three private hospitals namely Yanhee, Kasemrath Rattanathibet and Sriranong in Rayong province expressing intention to pull out next year."
 

From the above one assumes the Social Security scheme is already subject to the one year termination notice period. By the way, I would imagine announcing you're planning to introduce similar regulations for the Gold Card scheme is a good way to create a floodgate effect.

Edited August 29, 20178 yr by nausea
Grammar