Public Health Ministry notes service to migrants
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THE PUBLIC Health Ministry yesterday extolled its success in promoting health insurance for more than 1.7 million migrant workers from Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos and their accompanying family members.
The project spans medical expenses, health promotion and disease prevention.
Dr Suriya Wongkongkathep, a deputy permanent secretary of the ministry, told the Regional Workshop on Migrant Health that Thailand initiated the health programme in 2004 particularly for migrant workers who were not enrolled in the social-security system.
The workers could buy health cards for themselves and their families.
Last year, the government established one-stop service centres for migrant registration to ensure that these people would go through the national identification process and be eligible to receive health insurance.
As of July 27, the number of cardholders reached 1,750,899, of whom 609,785 were Cambodians, 994,355 Myanmar nationals and 194,365 Laotians. This was up substantially from the 2007 report of 700,000 insurance-card holders.
The insurance cards are available in three-month, six-month and 12-month durations and priced from Bt,1000-Bt2,100. Children under seven are charged only Bt365 per year.
Disease prevention
The programme will not only cover general healthcare expenses and high-cost services such as HIV treatment, but also promote healthy living and disease prevention.
The additional benefits of migrant health cards are more effective disease control in the country and narrower gaps in medical-treatment access among these people.
Some migrants have been trained to work as volunteers and interpreters at the hospitals to provide information on both preventing and living with diseases to improve immigrants’ overall quality of life in accordance with the “Migrant Friendly Service” principle, Suriya said.
The government has also worked with civil-society organisations and companies, including the Raks Thai Foundation, in preventing HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, especially in border areas and slums that usually have limited or no access to health services.
