The Comptroller-General's Department has proposed that the Thai General Insurance Association conduct a study of healthcare insurance to be provided by non-life insurers to state officials and their families.
The move is meant to seek ways to limit the government's healthcare spending to 60 billion baht a year, said director-general Manas Jamveha.
Healthcare spending for 6 million state officials and their family members has risen by 2 billion baht a year on average. This fiscal year alone, the government's burden for healthcare costs is expected to reach 68 billion baht, exceeding the budget set at 60 billion.
Higher healthcare benefits and the rising number of ageing state officials are blamed for the excessive healthcare costs.
The Comptroller-General's Department must use treasury reserves to finance the shortfall in healthcare bills, Mr Manas said.
Using the insurance system to fund state officials' healthcare bills would improve the efficiency of budget management, he said, adding that inefficient budget management also leads to swelling healthcare costs.
At present, some state officials abuse their right to medical treatment and sell medicines. Also, some doctors prescribe more medicines than are strictly necessary.
Mr Manas said state officials' healthcare benefits will remain unchanged even if insurance companies take charge of providing healthcare insurance.
The department is also studying whether healthcare insurance will be offered to all state officials or options will be provided for them if the government decides to exchange insurance policies.
The study will also cover whether only new state officials will be forced to enter the healthcare insurance system, he said.
For budget expenditure disbursement, 2.45 trillion baht or 90.2% of the 2.7-trillion-baht budget had been doled out as of Sept 16. Of the total, 2.12 trillion baht was regular budget and 330 billion was investment budget.
The disbursed investment budget accounted for 72.2% of the 460 billion baht set for investment in fiscal 2016, ending Sept 30. As of Sept 16, 13 billion baht of the 56-billion-baht extra budget was drawn down.
Moreover, 71.9% of the carry-over budget worth 310 billion baht was taken out as of Sept 16.