บทคัดย่อ
Private Health Insurance in ThailandThis study illustrates the overall picture of private health insurance in Thailand including number of private health insurance companies, characteristics of the insured, determination of collective and individual premium rates. The Thai private insurance companies can be classified into 2 types, life insurance and catastrophic insurance companies, both of which provide health insurance as supplemental to either life or catastrophic insurance policy. In 1997, 12 life insurance companies attached health insurance to life insurance policy as supplemental while 6 catastrophic insurance companies did so. The number of the privately health insured was around 5.89 million (9.73% of the total population) most of which were the better-off. The actual compensation rate of those life insurance companies was estimated between 80-90% while the catastrophic companies gave lower at 69.3%. The Department of Insurance determined standard premium rates for collective health insurance. Individual premium rates were set similar among the companies, simply said that the market was a contributing factor. Problematic factors to private health insurance business were from three main players, the insured, care providers, and insurance companies. Even there was a decreasing growth trend to the Thai private health insurance, niche market could be found if the companies would develop the insurance policy more appropriate to the current socio-economic circumstance.
