Early Results From Thailand's 30 Baht Health Reform: Something To Smile About

Kannika Damrongplasit,postdoctoral research fellow in health services at the School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, and the RAND Corp.
Glenn Melnick, professor and Blue Cross of California Chair of Health Care Finance at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and a senior economist with RAND in Santa Monica.
HEALTH AFFAIRS - Web Exclusive – March 31, 2009
Project HOPE–The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc

Available online at: http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.28.3.w457/DC1

“……Efforts by countries to attain universal coverage are often hampered by supply constraints that can reduce access to care for those already in the system and, in many Asian and developing countries, by the emergence of informal payment systems that extract under-the-table payments from patients.

In 2001, Thailand extended government-financed coverage to all uninsured people with little or no cost sharing. We found that Thailand has added nearly fourteen million people to the system and achieved near-universal coverage without compromising access for those with prior coverage; we also found that, to date, no informal payment system has emerged. [Health Affairs 28, no. 3 (2009): w457-w466 (published online 31 March 2009; 10.1377/hlthaff.28.3.w457)]