To quantitatively analyze the sustainability of Thailand's universal health insurance system and to assess potential reforms of its
financing (taxation) scheme, we adopt a modern dynamic general
equilibrium framework that includes a large number of
heterogeneous agents who face income/employment and medica
2007 and 2012 (see Fig. 3; source: http://web.nso.go.th/en/survey/
lfs/imp/imp09.htm). Informal workers are not protected by social
security, and they do not pay tax. They have low education levels
(65e70% had an elementary school education or below and only
5e7% had a level of education higher than secondary school during
the 2007e2012 period), and they tend to work in the agriculture
sector (around 60%). If the size of the informal sector remains the
same, the financing of UHI will be even more difficult in the near
future when the population becomes more aged.