Reply To: Week 3 Topic 2

[tullaya.sita]

The universal health coverage program is a good project that creates equity for people in the country to access and received fundamental health care services. Under UHC we left no one behind, unlike the health care system in some countries that people have to pay on their own or by their insurance company.
Thailand is one of the country that runs the universal health coverage for a long time and I think now we are ranking in the best 20 health care system in the world. Under the UHC, more people can access to medical treatment more people have better health literacy in disease prevention when compare to the previous system.
Unlike in the US, the health care service is paid by the patient or their insurance company. And most of health care services run as a private business, the business has to create their profit. It is not surprising to me that the cost of medical treatment in the USA is very expensive.
On the other hand, in the country with UHC, such as in Thailand, the cost of health care services is cheaper than in the US but met the same US standard. One of the reasons is the medication cost is cheaper because we can negotiate the drug prices by volume of purchase and we can use the drug at the lower prices by in-country made generic drug that more than 10 folds cheaper than original drugs. Another factor is, treatment cost in Thailand does not reflect the real cost because doctor’s and nursing charges in public organization is paid by a government that lower than the cost in private organization.
I agree that treatment in the US is better than in other countries. But, I don’t think that the US health care system is the best. The health care system in the US is paid by patients themselves and the cost of treatment is not an affordable price for most people. Even they have insurance coverage, they might need to pay as a co-payment. As we live longer, someday, a bigger proportion of US residence may don’t want to go to seek medical treatment because they don’t have enough money to pay for it.
In comparing the cost of health care services between countries, I don’t think that we can directly compare the cost only by how much we paid, we should also think of the difference in cost of living index too.