บทคัดย่อ
The Health Equity Fund is a social assistance scheme for the poor whose income is lower than the
poverty eradication target in Lao PDR and unable to enroll in any kind of health insurance. Health Equity
Fund (HEF) is a fund which implements the government’s policy in helping poor population to access to
health care services. It is a non-profit fund with tax exemption. The objective of this study was to identify
the level of users’ satisfaction towards the HEF at Nong District, Savannakhet Province, Lao PDR. The
key elements of satisfaction were concerned with curative service, food allowance, transportation, and copayment.
A structured questionnaire was applied to collect data from 336 patients who ever used health
care service at health center or district hospital. The findings revealed that patient’s satisfaction (out of 5
score) towards curative service was at the high level (x = 4.19, SD = 0.35), but low for transportation (x =
1.75, SD = 0.48), food allowance (x = 1.72, SD = 0.46), and co-payment (x = 1.75, SD = 0.49). In conclusion,
patient satisfaction level was high for curative service. From these results, there was a suggestion that
HEF had to improve service satisfaction for transportation, food allowance, and co-payment.
