Thai Health Promotion Foundation Highlights 23 Achievements in Senate Report
The Thai Health Promotion Foundation presented its annual report to the Senate, highlighting 23 achievements including reduced smoking rates and successful alcohol harm reduction programs. Senators debated the foundation's long-term impact on NCDs, which kill 400,000 Thais annually, while noting ThaiHealth's budget is under 1% of national health spending. A senator proposed legal safeguards for the fund's revenue and greater transparency to ensure continuous disease prevention efforts.
The Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) presented its 2024-2025 annual report to the Senate, highlighting 23 key achievements. Senator Dr. Viraphan Suwannamai, a Senate member, noted that 400,000 Thais die annually from NCDs (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension), costing 80 billion baht yearly. He questioned why NCDs haven't decreased after 20+ years of ThaiHealth's work, emphasizing that NCDs develop over decades and current prevention efforts will show results years later. With Thailand spending hundreds of millions on health while ThaiHealth operates on 4 billion baht annually (under 1%), he stressed this isn't one agency's duty alone. E-cigarette use among youth has surged 15-fold in 7 years, with 1 in 5 teens aged 13-15 vaping, proving prevention must be continuous. ThaiHealth's revenue is off-budget but audited. Dr. Viraphan proposed three solutions: 1) Set an annual revenue ceiling with excess returned to the Treasury and performance reviewed every 5 years per fund; 2) If revenue sources change, specify in the same law the tax increases and budget allocations per fund; 3) Have ThaiHealth scale successful projects into the mainstream public health system and open all data for public scrutiny, as transparent results are the best protection.
