If the limited pool of health professionals is left unresolved, the rapid expansion of the health care industry could threaten the public healthcare system by draining resources into the private sector. The so-called “internal brain drain,” or a flow of human resources from public to private hospitals, has been ongoing, because of the scarcity of medical staff. When the AEC kicks in and propels growth of the industry, this phenomenon could exacerbate disparities in healthcare access in Thailand. Already the pay gap between the public and private sectors in Thailand remains as high as 6-11 times for physicians since 1997. At the country level, a 2011 research paper in Lancet, one of the top medical journals, shows that the distribution of doctors and nurses in Thailand becomes increasingly skewed toward private hospitals in urban areas over time.