Chulalongkorn University Researchers Have Published New Data on COVID-19 (Utilisation, out-of-pocket payments and access before and after COVID-19: Thailand’s Universal Health Coverage Scheme): Coronavirus – COVID-19

CDC & FDA Daily

2024 MAY 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at CDC & FDA Daily -- A new study on COVID-19 is now available. According to news reporting originating from Bangkok, Thailand, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “The goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is that everyone needing healthcare can access quality services without financial hardship.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Chulalongkorn University: “Recent research covering countries with UHC systems documents the emergence, and acceleration following the COVID-19 pandemic of unapproved informal payment systems by providers that collect under-the-table payments from patients. In 2001, Thailand extended its ‘30 Baht’ government-financed coverage to all uninsured people with little or no cost sharing. In this paper, we update the literature on the performance of Thailand’s Universal Health Coverage Scheme (UCS) with data covering 2019 (pre-COVID-19) through 2021. We find that access to care for Thailand’s UCS-covered population (53 million) is similar to access provided to populations covered by the other major public health insurance schemes covering government and private sector workers, and that, unlike reports from other UHC countries, no evidence that informal side payments have emerged, even in the face of COVID-19 related pressures. However, we do find that nearly one out of eight Thailand’s UCS-covered patients seek care outside the UCS delivery system where they will incur out-of-pocket payments.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “This finding predates the COVID-19 pandemic and suggests the need for further research into the performance of the UHC-sponsored delivery system.”

For more information on this research see: Utilisation, out-of-pocket payments and access before and after COVID-19: Thailand’s Universal Health Coverage Scheme. BMJ Global Health, 2024,9(5). (BMJ Global Health - http://gh.bmj.com/). The publisher for BMJ Global Health is BMJ Publishing Group.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2024-015179.

Our news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Kannika Damrongplasit, Faculty of Economics and Center of Excellence for Health Economics, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. Additional authors for this research include Glenn Melnick.