EDITORIAL
The Rural Doctors Society has done the country a favour with its reminder that there are Thais who would have trouble scraping together 30 baht even in an emergency. But the group has gone much too far in its attempt to take the side of the rural poor in the healthcare system.
Society chairman Kriangsak Vatcharanukulkiat claimed recently that a majority of the country's citizens would go bankrupt if they had to pay 30 baht every time they sought medical treatment. This gross exaggeration is not helpful to those Thais who still need support in order to make healthcare universal. Far worse, it does nothing to assure the public that members of the RDS are dedicated to providing this universal care.The relaunch of the 30-baht health scheme _ first introduced by the Thaksin Shinawatra administration _ is a good policy. It was only a few short years ago that the Thaksin government dramatically moved the country towards universal healthcare. When that programme was started, there was strong opposition. In many hospitals, doctors and administrators actively opposed the 30-baht medical scheme. For years the clinics and hospitals claimed there was no way universal healthcare could be funded by a system wherein patients paid only 30 baht a visit.
Dr Kriangsak now claims the opposite _ that 30 baht is far too much for more than half the population to bear. The RDS has called on state-run hospitals to refuse to collect the 30-baht fee from patients. The group has also demanded that the government keep the National Health Security Office free from political interference _ which is ironic, since the RDS itself has now taken such a strong and controversial political viewpoint.
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