More than 400,000 civil servants and employees of local administration organisations are set to receive universal healthcare scheme benefits.
This is part of a bid to make more equitable the healthcare rights of people registered under different government health care schemes, said Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri.
He said local administration organisations were struggling to meet the rising costs of covering the healthcare of their staff members.The local administration organisations were established under a specific and different law, so their employees are not covered by any of the three main health schemes.Most people who are not civil servants or employees of a private company are covered by the universal scheme, also known as the 30 baht scheme, which is operated by the National Health Security Office (NHSO).
Mr Witthaya on Monday chaired a meeting of the NHSO and other parties where they discussed the issue.
Meeting participants agreed that a royal decree would be drafted under Section 9 of the National Health Security Act 2002 to allow the NHSO and local administration organisations to cooperate in improving health coverage of local administrations' staff members.
The NHSO will divert the cash it usually sets aside to fund local administration organisations' work to instead fund their employees' healthcare.The decree to be drafted by the NHSO is expected to be formally issued within three months.Section 9 of the act deals with the scope of healthcare rights of people in the care of state agencies, local administration organisations, state enterprises and other organisations.
Sorana Thepnao, president of the association of municipal officers, said the association had been calling for such health coverage for a long time and this move was a good start.
Source : BANGKOK POST Issued date 5 July 2012
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