Universal health-care demands in rural Northern Thailand: gender and ethnicity

Thitiwan Sricharoen (), Gertrud Buchenrieder, neé Schrieder and Thomas Dufhues
Additional contact information
Thitiwan Sricharoen: Khon Kaen University, Thailand

Asia-Pacific Development Journal, 2008, vol. 15, issue 1, 65-92

Abstract: Thailand introduced a universal health-care scheme in 2001, initially with a co-payment of 30 baht (B) per physician’s visit which was abolished by the military Government in 2006. The scheme covers 75 per cent of the Thai population. Nevertheless, it lacks flexibility for the beneficiaries as it is a one-size-fits-all scheme. In this study, choicebased conjoint (CBC) analysis is used to identify the health-care demands of different subpopulations in the Mae Rim district, northern Thailand. The different demands of subpopulations, such as men, women and ethnic minorities, are revealed through the CBC analysis. Most households would pay a co-payment higher than B 30 if the services were adapted to the demand, that is, if the quality of service were improved. In general, women appear more willing to pay a higher price than men if the benefits are improved accordingly. This means that men profit much more from the policy change of dropping the co-payment than do women. Furthermore, the present analysis indicates the need for more health education training, designed to meet the needs of the Hmong people in particular.

JEL-codes: O12 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/apdj-15 ... enrieder_Dufhues.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unt:jnapdj:v:15:y:2008:i:1:p:65-92

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Asia-Pacific Development Journal from United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Macroeconomic Policy and Development Division, ESCAP ().