Within one year of its launch in 2001, the UCS covered 47 million people: 75% of
the Thai population, including 18 million people previously uninsured. The other
25% of the population were government employees, retirees and dependants,
who remained under the Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSBMS), and
private-sector employees, who continued to have their health-care costs paid
for by the contributory Social Security Scheme (SSS). The UCS was remarkable
not only for the speed of its implementation, but also because it was pursued in
the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis when gross national income was
only US$ 1,900 per capita, and against the advice of some external experts who
believed the scheme was not financially viable.