Reply To: Week 3 Topic 2

[w.thanachol]

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is medical insurance supported by Thailand’s state welfare. UHC does not only lessen the out-of-pocket expenditure but also improve preventive health care. However, this welfare burden the health care workers from the outrageous visits.
UHC profit the country reducing the medical expense because of several reasons. Firstly, the government can regulate the pharmaceutical provider having the essential medicine at a reasonable price. Secondly, hospitals funded by the government claim the insurance in the standard price thus the doctors would investigate only in need, not throughout the body. Thirdly, Hospital accreditation mandates the hospital to give a standard service to all patients. The citizen could trust the public hospitals and do not worry about their service charge, hence they will access to health care earlier when they face the abnormal symptoms. Health care providers then could restore the patients in time and regularly.
On the other hand, UHC is also a two-edged sword. Charge-free service persuades the patients with self-limited illness to the hospital unlimitedly. This situation burdens the health care providers and reduces treatment resources for serious illness patients. Modest capital gain in this UHC country could not attract the researchers to innovate the novel medicine or instrument like in the United States. Hence we could rarely see the new innovation for health care in Thailand.
To conclude, State medical welfare is beneficial for their citizen throughout the country, yet the number of patients with self-limited illness ought to be reduced. Also, the government should raise the incentive for innovation development.