design a universal coverage scheme, but also to manage its implementation,
including capacity for learning from the experience and tweaking the scheme
as it is implemented.
Designing the system
Three design elements are essential to achieve universal coverage: extension
of access to services, cost containment and strategic purchasing. Financing
reform must go hand in hand with ensuring physical access to services. There is
no point giving people a theoretical entitlement to financial protection if they
have no access to local services or if it is too costly to access services outside
the community in which they live. Thailand was in a good position to implement
the UCS policy because for decades the government had invested in building
local health infrastructure