If universal healthcare is a right, who pays?

The local hospital in our Amphun in Lamphun routinely processes 100 people in four hours, then up to another 30 or so stragglers in the afternoon. They are incredibly efficient and significantly better than many a big private hospital.  
Thai universal healthcare works. But there are always forces at work to privatise the nationalised healthcare system so the private sector can harvest the wealth of the most vulnerable in society or otherwise dump the financial burden of the system on those who simply cannot afford it. This programme is in place to take the financial pressure off the poorest segment of Thai society.  
You’ll never hear the success stories of this programme from Thai mainstream media. There are many success stories.  
connda
Universal healthcare is good – but it should be better funded. However the Thai tax base is quite small so I understand that they are searching for co-payment. Meanwhile the increased spending on the military should have been diverted to the health budget (not that that is going to happen). But one has to accept that healthcare will never be perfect and there will always be a shortage of funds. Now Thailand has an ageing population the strain on the budget will only get worse. Choices have to be made and people will have to be taxed more, or else it won’t be possible to go on like this.
It’s nice to say healthcare is a right, but who is going to pay for this right? Maybe value-added tax could be raised by 1 per cent and the resulting revenue directed to the health budget (and this enshrined in law so that it stays that way).
robblok 
I really dislike the polarised debate labelling healthcare either a “right” or a “commodity”. It is simply a fact that everyone, at some point in their lives, will use the healthcare system. The logical outcome of the previous sentence is that it should be a shared function among all citizens. It is a question of fairness.
Is it free? No, it isn’t. It should be paid for by taxpayers, and those that have done well in life should kick in more if they have more. This is not a “socialist” point of view; rich people, especially in Thailand, tend to come from rich families who were able to provide for education, etc. I would say that being rich depends on luck as much as anything else; the poor work just as many hours as the rich, but they aren’t rewarded as well. And before anyone says, it, I am okay with rich people; it is the way humanity works.
I would compare the two systems that are familiar to me, the US and Canada. In the US, if you are wealthy, you have access to a great health system and things are fine. If you are poor, well, tough luck. In Canada, everyone is covered because everyone contributes a small portion of their income based on its size. You (everyone!) might not get into see a doctor as fast as a rich American, but you get in and get treated. And it is covered.
Big picture, the US spends twice as much on their health system as Canada, and achieves worse results. 
Unfortunately, I think Thai healthcare will follow the US model, as all the people in government are rich (unless you believe that the soldiers really do live on their salaries).
Poor people also deserve healthcare, not just the rich. Period.
Samui Bodoh
ThaiVisa