Abstract
Since 2002, Thailand has achieved Universal Health Coverage (UHC) under the three main
public health insurance schemes. UHC enabled Thai population to access essential healthcare services
regardless of income. Patient would not be worried about negative financial impacts from medical
bills to their household however the unmet health need can be found. Therefore, there is a study
on unmet health need conducted in order to monitor UHC on another aspect and to demonstrate
whether or not Thailand has patients who cannot access health service when needed, if yes, how
many; who are they and why? The objective of this study is to analyze prevalence of unmet health
need, to describe profile of patients with unmet health need and to identify factors and reasons for
unmet health need. Descriptive statistics and logit model were applied for analysis of Health and
Welfare Survey (HWS) in 2015 with 55,920 sampled households representing Thai populations.
Prevalence of unmet health need for outpatient, inpatient and dental service were 1.50 percent,
0.14 percent and 0.99 percent of all population, respectively. Main factors of being unmet health
need were age, especially elderly; uninsured people; and the poorest household economic group.
In addition, people living in Bangkok had more unmet health need for outpatient services than other
regions. The main reasons of unmet health need were inadequate time of patient for seeking care,
too long queue at health facilities, and too far to travel to health facilities.
Ministry of Public Health, National Health Security Office and other relevant agencies should
collectively work together for a policy and strategy to reduce unmet health need of Thai population,
especially for elderly. Primary health care service delivery system should be strengthened to cover
all urban areas in particular in Bangkok. “Close to client health services” should be developed for
improving access to health services.
