Public Health Ministry urged to okay budget amid fear over universal coverage
The Rural Doctor Society has urged Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to end delays in signing next year's universal health coverage (UHC) budget guidelines, warning full coverage for Thais is at risk.
Writing on Facebook, the group said the budget announcement usually comes before October 1 and last year was signed on September 9.
This year’s announcement on the disease-prevention budget has been delayed for a month already, despite approval of the budget in September by the National Health Security Office (NHSO), it said on Sunday.
The group said the delay came after Anutin's advisory team proposed that the budget be spent only on gold card holders.
It added that, as in previous years, the budget should be spent on all three of Thailand’s UHC schemes – the government officials’ scheme, social security, and the gold card scheme.
It urged Anutin to listen to the schemes’ operators and ensure that the budget was spread to cover all health welfare recipients in Thailand.
The NHSO board on Monday voted to confirm that Anutin could sign off on next year's budget guidelines without asking the Council of State (government lawyers) or the Secretariat of the Cabinet.
It also agreed with the Budget Bureau's remark to the Cabinet that next year’s budget for disease prevention must cover all groups of people.
"All Thais should have the right to medical treatment,” the Rural Doctor Society said, adding that this principle should not be neglected.
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