Thailand's Access to Healthcare Services: The reflection and inequality of Vulnerable Group

Abstract

The objectives of this article are to: 1) study Thai public health services policies; 2) find problems with inequality in accessibility to public health services for vulnerable groups. The results revealed that Thailand clearly established the Action Plan on Public Health under the    20-Year National Strategy and current constitution as well as other related action plans. Formerly, the Ministry of Public Health strived to solve the problems of service provision by reducing procedures that hindered accessibility for people. However, there were some problems associated with inequality that occurred with vulnerable groups, including: problems with personal status (social status, social capital, and human capital); systematical problems resulting from overlap of 3 health insurance systems (Universal Health Coverage Scheme, Health Insurance under the Thai Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme, and social security); problems with hospital selection; structural problems in management of public health operations; lack of physician referral; problems with budget; public health manpower planning; inefficient operational mechanism; and corruption service providing. There were several suggestions obtained from this study, including the mutual fund of those 3 health insurance systems, driving to equal benefits and rights, integrated coordination and cooperation among related agencies, regular provision of mobile medical units in community areas and rural areas, efficient design or management of problems in each area, and technological promotion for public services.