Health Insurance Schemes and Their Influences on Healthcare Variation in Asian Countries: A Realist Review and Theory's Testing in Thailand.

Background: Various features in health insurance schemes may lead to variation in healthcare. Unwarranted variations raise concerns about suboptimal quality of care, differing treatments for similar needs, or unnecessary financial burdens on patients and health systems. This realist review aims to explore insurance features that may contribute to healthcare variation in Asian countries; and to understand influencing mechanisms and contexts.

All-cause excess mortality among end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand: a cross-sectional study from a national-level claims database.

Objectives: COVID-19 infection increased nephrology-related risks and mortality rate among end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. The pandemic also disrupted essential healthcare services. We aim to explore all-cause excess mortality among ESRD patients who were members of the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS), the largest public health insurance scheme in Thailand covering citizens who are not employed in the formal sector, including children and older persons.

Definition, Practice, Regulations, and Effects of Balance Billing: A Scoping Review.

Background: Additional billing is commonly and legally practiced in some countries for patients covered by health insurance. However, knowledge and understanding of the additional billings are limited. This study reviews evidence on additional billing practices including definition, scope of practice, regulations and their effects on insured patients.

Contracting the private health sector in Thailand's Universal Health Coverage.

Private sector plays an import role in health service provision, therefore the engagement of private health facilities is important for ensuring access to health services. In Thailand, two of the three public health insurance schemes, Universal Coverage Scheme and Social Health Insurance, contract with private health facilities to fill gaps of public providers for the provision of health services under Universal Health Coverage. The National Health Security Office (NHSO) and Social Security Office (SSO), which manage the schemes respectively, have designed their own contractual agreements for private facilities.

Effective coverage of diabetes and hypertension: an analysis of Thailand's national insurance database 2016-2019.

Objectives: This study assesses effective coverage of diabetes and hypertension in Thailand during 2016-2019.

Design: Mixed method, analysis of National health insurance database 2016-2019 and in-depth interviews.

Setting: Beneficiaries of Universal Coverage Scheme residing outside Bangkok.

Health Policy and Systems Research Capacities in Ethiopia and Ghana: Findings From a Self-Assessment.

Introduction: Health systems are complex. Policies targeted at health system development may be informed by health policy and systems research (HPSR). This study assesses HPSR capacity to generate evidence and inform policy in Ethiopia and Ghana.

Effect of the Promulgation of the New Migrant's Employment Law on Migrant Insurance Coverage in Thailand: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis, 2016-2018.

This study explores the effect of the recently enacted Foreigners' Working Management Emergency Decree, 2017 on migrant insurance coverage between January 2016 and December 2018. We employed an interrupted time series (ITS) model to estimate the level and trend changes of the number of migrants enrolled in Social Health Insurance (SHI) for formal workers and the Health Insurance Card Scheme (HICS) for other migrants. Before the Decree's implementation, SHI covered roughly a third of the total migrants holding work permits, while HICS covered over half of migrants in the country.

Developing a Thai national critical care allocation guideline during the COVID-19 pandemic: a rapid review and stakeholder consultation.

Background: At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Thailand had almost depleted its critical care resources, particularly intensive care unit (ICU) beds and ventilators. This prompted the necessity to develop a national guideline for resource allocation. This paper describes the development process of a national guideline for critical resource allocation in Thailand during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prioritizing critical-care resources in response to COVID-19: lessons from the development of Thailand's Triage protocol.

As COVID-19 ravages the world, many countries are faced with the grim reality of not having enough critical-care resources to go around. Knowing what could be in store, the Thai Ministry of Public Health called for the creation of an explicit protocol to determine how these resources are to be rationed in the situation of demand exceeding supply. This paper shares the experience of developing triage criteria and a mechanism for prioritizing intensive care unit resources in a middle-income country with the potential to be applied to other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) faced with a similar (if not more of a) challenge when responding to the global pandemic.

Primary health care and sustainable development goals.

We examine the potential and limitations of primary health care in contributing to the achievement of the health-related sustainable development goals (SDGs), and recommend policies to enable a functioning primary health-care system. Governments have recently reaffirmed their commitment to the SDGs through the 2018 Declaration of Astana, which redefines the three functions of primary health care as: service provision, multisectoral actions and the empowerment of citizens. In other words, the health-related SDGs cannot be achieved by the provision of health-care services alone.

Defining the Benefit Package of Thailand Universal Coverage Scheme: From Pragmatism to Sophistication.

Benefit package is crucial for implementing universal health coverage (UHC). This editorial analyses how the benefit package of the Thai Universal Coverage Scheme (UC Scheme) evolved from an implicit comprehensive package which covered all conditions and interventions (with a few exceptions), to additional explicit positive lists. In 2002 when the Thai UC Scheme was launched; the comprehensive benefit package, including medicines in the national essential list of medicines, formerly offered by the previous schemes were pragmatically adopted.

Political economy of Thailand's tax-financed universal coverage scheme.

Problem: The challenge of implementing contributory health insurance among populations in the informal sector was a barrier to achieving universal health coverage (UHC) in Thailand.

Approach: UHC was a political manifesto of the 2001 election campaign. A contributory system was not a feasible option to honour the political commitment.

Legislating for public accountability in universal health coverage, Thailand.

Sustaining universal health coverage requires robust active public participation in policy formation and governance. Thailand's universal coverage scheme was implemented nationwide in 2002, allowing Thailand to achieve full population coverage through three public health insurance schemes and to demonstrate improved health outcomes. Although Thailand's position on the World Bank worldwide governance indicators has deteriorated since 1996, provisions for voice and accountability were embedded in the legislation and design of the universal coverage scheme.

Surveys of knowledge and awareness of antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance in general population: A systematic review.

Background: Currently, various tools exist to evaluate knowledge and awareness of antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and are applied by various organizations. Previous systematic reviews have focused mainly on study findings such as levels of knowledge and AMR awareness. However, the survey procedures and data instruments used ought to be scrutinized as well, since they are important contributors to credible results.

Achieving the targets for universal health coverage: how is Thailand monitoring progress?

Universal health coverage (UHC) is one of the targets within the Sustainable Development Goals that the Member States of the United Nations have pledged to achieve by 2030. Target 3.8 has two monitoring indicators: 3.

Equity of health workforce distribution in Thailand: an implication of concentration index.

Background: Geographical maldistribution has been a critical concern of health workforce planning in Thailand for years. This study aimed to assess the equity of health workforce distribution in public hospitals affiliated to the Office of Permanent Secretary (OPS) of the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) through the application of "concentration index" (CI).

Methods: A cross sectional quantitative design was employed.

Improving access to assistive technologies: challenges and solutions in low- and middle-income countries.

Assistive technologies can benefit a wide range of people, including those with disabilities; those with age-related frailties; those affected by noncommunicable diseases; and those requiring rehabilitation. Access to these technologies is limited in low- and middle-income countries but the already-high need will inevitably rise further because of demographic and epidemiological transitions. Four key gaps contribute to limited access.

Health systems development in Thailand: a solid platform for successful implementation of universal health coverage.

Thailand's health development since the 1970s has been focused on investment in the health delivery infrastructure at the district level and below and on training the health workforce. Deliberate policies increased domestic training capacities for all cadres of health personnel and distributed them to rural and underserved areas. Since 1975, targeted insurance schemes for different population groups have improved financial access to health care until universal health coverage was implemented in 2002.