The National Health Security Office (NHSO) will hold a meeting today to discuss public hearings on a revised national health security bill.
Head of inspectors for public health, Marut Jirasetsiri, who also serves as secretary of a committee responsible for looking into revisions of the bill, said the committee, chaired by Warakorn Samkoset, had agreed on the revised bill.
The Office of the Council of State is reviewing the bill which covers changes in 14 areas, he added.
Mr Marut said the committee wants comments from different groups on the revisions.
The public hearings are expected to be wrapped up by next month, including an online hearing which is expected to start this week, he said.
There will also be hearings organised with locals and another with experts, he added.
Hearings with community residents will be carried out in Songkhla on June 10; in Chiang Mai on June 11; in Khon Kaen on June 17 and at the Centara Government Complex Hotel & Convention Centre in Bangkok on June 18.
The hearing with experts will be conducted on June 20-21, he said.
It was reported that areas of revision included public health services, the National Health Security committee, the NHSO's management, National Health Security funds, and the committee on public health quality and service improvement.
The objective of the revisions is to provide better benefits to people and tackle the problems the NHSO has faced in making the Universal Healthcare Coverage (UC) scheme more sustainable.
The UC scheme or the so-called "30-baht gold card" was initiated in 2002 for people who are neither private sector employees nor government employees, to ensure they have access to health care and receive government health subsidies.
It reportedly suffered poor management due to lack of government investment.