Abstract
Pursuit of rights and equity in health: social and cultural perspectives for health care reform in ThailandThis research is aimed to understand people conceptualization of rights and equity in health from Thai socio-cultural perspective.The research is exploring how people construct meaning of rights and equity in general and how they applied it in issues of health and health care. Numbers of civil organizations are selected based on their local establishment and their concern for local social, health, economics and environmental problems. Members of these organization are selected interview to represent diverse social and economic background of people in the local areas. Focus group interview is applied to bring people opinion, conceptualization of the terms rights and equity as well as how they see right and equity in health fit their frame of thought.This research try to understand people perception of their current equity in health and their actual needs as well as expectation for better health care. The result of this research is expected to be use in finding direction, patterns or model for health care reform that in concert with human right and equity. Information provided here could be useful for policy implementation and health care reform. This research reveals that civil society/people organization in Thailand has not yet active in raising issues of health as right. When question of right asked people interpret it differently. One set of perspective stress rights of individual. Some groups discussed right of individual provided by law and considered it as to have individual choice. Some groups emphasize the interrelation between individual and community right that "one should have, should be and should receive." Another perspective focuses on rights as social, public, and cultural affairs. However, most people reflex that in the current situation of Thailand, people have not have any right to determined what should be their rights. They have no participation in formulating the right and do not know what rights they have or granted by the government. They conceived that rights that are provided by the government today are not what common people want. People criticized that government set out rules and regulations without considering social circumstances and cultural tradion of the people. Therefore, many of those rules are not used and sometimes inapplicable. The term equity is too abstract for every groups interviewed in this research. Most people think of it in the same was as equity, particulary when they assess the inequity to health care service.
