Medical tax must provide excellent service
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Public Health Minister Pradit Sintavanarong's proposal to introduce a medical tax for tourists is creating a furore in the foreign media.
Collecting Bt500 from each of the 24.5 million foreign tourists targeted for 2014 would raise a handy Bt12.2 billion, meaning foreigners would be contributing an increment of 5 per cent to Thailand’s health budget of Bt254.9 billion for 2013. The ministry’s office in Phuket estimates the annual losses from foreigners’ unpaid medical bills in Phuket at Bt5 million a year. Since Phuket hosts 40 per cent of the foreign tourists, we can assume the total losses for the country amount to perhaps Bt10 million to Bt20 million a year, or up to 0.2 per cent of the funds the new tax would raise.
If the tax goes ahead, I hope the government will account for the money in a fully transparent manner. It should also ensure that at least some part of the incremental budget will be used to provide outstanding emergency medical care for foreign tourists, many of whom will not buy travel insurance once they know about the new tax.
Stories of misappropriation of funds and of foreigners being denied free emergency care or receiving substandard care after paying the tax would be extremely damaging to the tourism sector, which is currently the only real engine of growth in the Thai economy.
George Morgan
Bangkok
