The Dental Council has urged the Social Security Office (SSO) to scrap new conditions on its dental coverage which limit benefits for its members.
The SSO earlier announced to increase dental coverage to 900 baht from 600 baht a year, effective on Monday.
But at the same time, it set the ceiling for each procedure: 400 baht for plaque removal; 300 baht for amalgam fillings on one side and 450 baht on both sides; 350 baht for composite fillings on a front tooth and 400 baht on a back tooth (400 baht for fillings on both sides of a front tooth and 500 baht for both sides of the back teeth); 250 baht for tooth removal; 450 baht for the removal of a hard-to-extract tooth; and 900 baht for the removal of an impacted tooth.
Paisan Kangvonkit, president of the Dental Council, said with such conditions, the members were forced to effectively “co-pay” for all procedures, unlike the previous system which simply capped the coverage at 600 baht a year regardless of the types or numbers of procedures.
He said 78.8% of the members went to see dentists at private clinics which charged more than the SSO’s rates.
For example, a member who gets fillings on one side of a tooth will receive only 300 baht. This means he has to pay 100 or 200 baht out of his pocket to cover tghe cost. If the member does not need any other procedure in that year, he would get lower benefits than in the previous system.
Confederation of Thai Labour president Manas Kosol said his group would wait until Sept 15 before seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to seek justice on behalf of 10.39 million members of the fund.
Set up in 1990, the SSO manages a fund for employees in the private sector.