Abstract
This synthesis paper was aimed at sheding light on the current performance of the Road Accident Victim Protection Act, 1992. It also attempted to identify ways and means to improve the status quo. The paper drew from the literature information pertinent to the law and its enforcement in Thailand and to similar laws and their enforcement in other countries. A comparison of concepts, principles and evidence related to these laws and their performance was also made. Public interest was put ahead of private interests in the comparison. It was found that over a period of 16 years of the law’s enforcement, it succeeded to a certain extent in protecting the interests of Thai road accident victims in terms of compensation
for medical costs and loss of life. Nevertheless, success came at the expense of road accident victims and health insurance systems:
1. Hundreds of thousands of victims and their families were not covered by insurance due to ignorance, concern about legal action under the fault system of the law, and difficulties in making claims owing to the complicated extra rules and regulations set up by private insurance companies.
2. Unnecessary costs were incurred under the current compensation system operated by private insurance companies.
3. Opportunities to make use of medical care with ongoing quality improvement were lost, which could have been financed by a more efficient compensation system.
4. The burden of medical care costs on the victims was shifted to other health insurance schemes due to cumbersome access to the road victim compensation scheme.
Proposed strategies to improve the current system are the following:
1. Replace the existing law with a proposed bill so that public agencies will replace private insurance companies; hence, unnecessary costs could be cut and claim procedures could be simplified greatly.
2. Modify premium collection by point-of-sale revenue collection from the price of fuel. This would preclude the need to pay commissions and other costs related to premium collection.
3. Adopt the compensation recovery unit model of the United Kingdom to improve efficiency in processing claims.
4. Expand the scope of missions to include financing for quality improvement of medical care and road accident injury prevention.
