Even more impressive was the impact made by the UCS in its first 10 years.
The UCS improved access to necessary health services, improved equity of service
utilization and prevented medical impoverishment. Between 2003 and 2010, the
number of outpatient visits per member per year rose from 2.45 to 3.22 and the
number of hospital admissions per member per year rose from 0.094 to 0.116. Data
from 2010 point to a very low level of unmet need for health services in Thailand.
Impoverishment, as measured by the additional number of non-poor households
falling below the national poverty line as a result of paying for medicines and/
or health services, decreased significantly from 2.71% in 2000 (prior to the UCS)
to 0.49% in 2009.
The UCS led to a significant increase in government health spending and a marked
decline in out-of-pocket expenditure and, importantly, the rich-poor gap in out-ofpocket
expenditure was eliminated. Moreover, the UCS increased equity in public
subsidies, and overall health expenditure was very “progressive” or pro-poor