ThaiHealth Pushes Market Design for Health Equity
ThaiHealth hosted a national conference on commercial determinants of health, advocating market redesign to promote fair well‑being. Experts discussed tools such as sin tax and transparent oversight to align business incentives with health goals. The event stressed the need for government, industry, and civil society collaboration to shape healthier market environments.
The health of people is not determined solely by individual choices but is also shaped by market structures, policies, economic incentives, and the trading environment that dictate everyday decisions. Achieving fair well‑being therefore requires looking beyond risk‑factor control to design systems and markets that support public health.
The Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), together with its network partners, therefore organized the National Conference on Commercial Determinants of Health 2026 (NCDH2026) held on October 5‑7, 2026, to create understanding, exchange evidence and lessons, and develop policy proposals to drive Thailand toward fair well‑being under the concept From Landscape to Action: Governing Commercial Determinants for Fair Well‑Being.
One of the key sessions of the conference was Plenary 3 Designing Markets for Health: Positive Pathways and Responsible Business, which invites a view of the other side of commercial determinants that shape health—not only focusing on controlling negative impacts but asking how market mechanisms, rules, and economic incentives can be designed so that businesses can genuinely benefit health and the public.
The session featured Dr. Monika Kosinska, Head of the Economic and Commercial Determinants of Health Integration Unit at the World Health Organization (WHO), delivering a keynote on Positive Pathways of CDoH: Conditions That Enable Markets to Work for Health, together with Dr. Sumphan Sinlaparnat, Chair of the Public Policy Development Committee on Managing Commercial Determinants of Public Health; Dr. Pairoj Saonuam, Deputy Manager of the ThaiHealth Fund; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chalat Santiworaangkana, Director of the Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University; Paisith Phanichkul, Director of the Academic Center for Driving Prevention and Solution of Air Pollution Problems (Air Pollution Academic Center, APAC); and Suwana Langnamsang, Chief Executive Officer of Lemon Farm (Social Health Company Limited).
Dr. Pairoj Saonuam, Deputy Manager of the ThaiHealth Fund, said that health promotion today must look beyond treating symptoms and consider market structures, economic incentives, and commercial factors that influence health, in order to design mechanisms that allow the business sector and economic system to contribute positive outcomes for the public.
One important lesson is the use of Sin Tax as a policy tool that both mobilizes resources to support health promotion and increases the cost of risk factors, showing that if incentives and rules are appropriately designed, fiscal mechanisms can redirect markets toward health without relying solely on regulation.
Dr. Pairoj added that designing markets for health must go hand in hand with a transparent, accountable supervisory system with evaluation to ensure that business incentives truly lead to health benefits. At the same time, the government, business sector, and civil society must jointly create conditions that allow healthy choices to emerge and expand within the market system.
We must see that the health context is not limited to medicine, drugs, or individual knowledge; social determinants of health are also important, including the emerging factor of commercial determinants that shape health.
