The National Health Security Office (NHSO) has approved a proposal to include six more medical treatments and services in its free universal health coverage (UHC) scheme, including liver transplants.
The decision was reached at a meeting of the NHSO board on Wednesday, led by Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, in his capacity as chairman. These additional services will require more than 900 million baht in funding per year. The proposal was recommended by a sub-committee studying changes to the scheme's benefits package, said Mr Anutin.
Liver transplants for patients with mid- to late-stage cirrhosis will be provided free under the expanded UHC. At most, 100 such transplants can be carried out each year, given current capacity. Mr Anutin said about 25 patients each year are expected to apply for the treatment. "This will require about 17.5 million baht in funding per year," he said.
Another service that will be included in the UHC is the HLA-B* 5801 gene test. This test helps doctors decide whether patients with gout can be treated with Allopurinol -- which is known to cause adverse reactions, including Stevens-Johnson syndrome and epidermal necrolysis.
"This service will cost 8.2 million baht per year," he said. The third benefit to be included is a provision for extracorporeal membrane oxygenator (Ecmo) for patients with heart or lung failure, which will benefit about 300 patients each year at a cost of 26 million baht, the minister said.
The fourth service to be added are lung X-rays and molecular assays to detect tuberculosis in high-risk communities, in which about one million people are at risk. This will cost the government 725 million baht each year, he said.
The fifth new service is screening for hearing disorders among newborn children, which will be carried out among more than 30,000 babies and require 12.3 million baht in funding per year.
The last benefit to be added is the provision of small rechargeable hearing aids to 33 patients under the age of five. The devices cost about 600,000 baht per unit, he said.