Groups protest against medical co-payment scheme
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Health advocates and patients' networks launched a protest yesterday against the National Health Security Office's move to introduce a co-payment system for the universal healthcare scheme.
The NHSO executive board met yesterday to discuss a proposal by the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) to introduce the co-payment scheme, under which subscribers would have to pay a part of their medical bills.
A group of health activists, including the People Living with HIV/Aids Network, the Patients Network and People’s Health System Movement, gathered outside the NHSO office yesterday demanding that this proposal be withdrawn from its agenda.
Saree Aongsomwang, secretary-general of the Foundation for Consumers, said implementing this co-payment scheme would adversely affect subscribers who lack funds.
“The NHSO should first conduct a comprehensive study to estimate the pros and cons and listen to opinions from stakeholders before implementing this system,” she said.
In a survey involving 589 patients registered under the NHSO, the foundation discovered that each patient had to pay at least Bt355 personally. They also have to spend about Bt724 per person per night for hospital stay, when most of them earn only Bt201 per day.
“This is not including the cost of travel to the hospital,” she said.
Meanwhile, Public Health Minister Dr Pradit Sinthawanarong said he did not know about the urgent agenda to discuss the co-payment scheme, adding that it might have been proposed by the NHSO’s secretariat division.
“I have personally never thought about implementing a co-payment scheme, but we need to think about improving the NHSO in a sustainable manner,” he said, adding that he had asked the NHSO executive board to withdraw this item from the agenda.
NHSO secretary-general Dr Winai Sawasdivorn said the agency’s executive board had to discuss this issue because Thailand’s population is ageing and there were concerns about unnecessary medical treatments and rising costs.
Moreover, the NESDB had previously proposed the co-payment scheme to the Cabinet as a way to control the healthcare budget without blocking poor people’s access to basic treatment.
