Background
Thailand has achieved universal health coverage since
2002 through the implementation of the Universal Cov-
erage Scheme (UCS) for 47 million (75%) of the popula-
tion who were neither private sector employees covered
by the Social Health Insurance Scheme, nor government
employees and dependants covered by the Civil Servant
Medical Benefit Scheme [1].
Grouping 47 million UCS members of the whole-
country
’
s 65 million population by their households
’
asset index quintiles (20 pe
rcent equally), the poorest
and poor quintiles accounted for almost half (46-47%)
of all UCS members (Figure 1) while less than 15% of
the UCS beneficiaries belonged to the richest quintile
between 2003 and 2009. The UCS covers most of the
poor Thai population who reside in the rural areas.
Policy concerns if the poor UCS members benefit from
the Scheme.
Increased utilization of services among UCS members
was observed; the total outpatient (OP) visits to district