Publication: Health-seeking behavior of the uninsured before and after the universal coverage scheme in Thailand
Submitted Date
Received Date
Accepted Date
Issued Date
2018-01-01
Copyright Date
Announcement No.
Application No.
Patent No.
Valid Date
Resource Type
Edition
Resource Version
Language
File Type
No. of Pages/File Size
ISBN
ISSN
01198386
eISSN
DOI
Scopus ID
WOS ID
Pubmed ID
arXiv ID
Call No.
Other identifier(s)
2-s2.0-85053601557
Journal Title
Volume
Issue
item.page.oaire.edition
Start Page
End Page
Access Rights
Access Status
Rights
Mahidol University
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Physical Location
Bibliographic Citation
Asia-Pacific Social Science Review. Vol.18, No.1 (2018), 1-14
Citation
Natthani Meemon, Seung Chun Paek (2018). Health-seeking behavior of the uninsured before and after the universal coverage scheme in Thailand. Retrieved from: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14594/44946.
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Authors
Journal Issue
Thesis
Title
Health-seeking behavior of the uninsured before and after the universal coverage scheme in Thailand
Alternative Title(s)
Author(s)
Author's Affiliation
Author's E-mail
Editor(s)
Editor's Affiliation
Corresponding Author(s)
Creator(s)
Compiler
Advisor(s)
Illustrator(s)
Applicant(s)
Inventor(s)
Issuer
Assignee
Other Contributor(s)
Series
Has Part
Abstract
© 2018 by De La Salle University. Before Thailand implemented the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) in 2002, 18 million people were uninsured. Thus, this study assessed the impact of the UCS on healthcare utilization by investigating the changes in health-seeking behavior among the previously uninsured before and after UCS. Using the nationwide Health and Welfare Survey data of 2001 and 2003–2005, multinomial logistic regression and mixed-effects multinomial logistic regression were used to investigate the relationship between health-seeking behavior and individual characteristics, and how the relationship changed over time. The study findings indicated that the UCS significantly increased utilization of public facility care and simultaneously decreased utilization of informal care. The observed changes were more significant in lower income, female, lower educated, and married people. But, there was no significant change in utilization of private facility care after the UCS. The changes in health-seeking behavior among lower income people from informal care requiring fully out-of-pocket (OOP) payment into public facility care requiring no or minimum OOP payment implied that UCS contributed to financial protection and equity in healthcare utilization. It also contributed to safety in healthcare utilization by decreasing the utilization of informal care which had the potential risk from inaccurate self-diagnosis and treatment. However, more than 50% of the beneficiaries still utilized care outside the UCS service boundary, which might be due to insufficient healthcare resources in public sector. Thus, the UCS should continue an effort to improve the infrastructure in public sector and to encourage the involvement of private sector in the scheme.