Abstract
The major aims of the universal health care coverage (UC) policy initiated in Thailand in 2001 are not
only to increase the access of people to essential health services, but also to reduce the financial risk they
face due to out-of-pocket payments for health care. This study employed secondary data analysis of the
Socio-Economic Survey (SES) conducted by the National Statistical Office to estimate the number of households
becoming impoverished because of the payments for health care they had to make before implementation
of the UC policy (1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002) and thereafter (2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008), and to
compare the findings with a counter-factual UC-absent scenario, using segmented linear regression analysis.
At the national, regional, and provincial levels, the proportions of households falling below the poverty
line declined gradually during the study periods. Without the 2002-UC, a total of 100,604 households
nationwide would be impoverished by out-of-pocket payments for health care in 2008. The UC policy in
the same year could reduce the number of health-impoverished households by 37,628 (37.4%), which is
equivalent to 0.2 percent of 19 million households nationwide. The health insurance system design that takes into account both “breadth” (that is, the number of the population covered) and the benefit package’
s “depth” dimensions, provides better financial risk protection and prevents households from falling into
the poverty trap due to the necessity of making costly health expenditures
