Thailand Health Board Reviews 757 Proposals to Improve Gold Card

Thailand's National Health Security Board reviewed 757 public suggestions and forwarded 375 issues to advance the Gold Card system, reaffirming that the goal is to ensure citizens have easy, quality, and fair access to healthcare services and to help providers deliver continuous care to the public. On August 3, 2025, the board met under the chairmanship of Public Health Minister Pattana Prom-Pattana and acknowledged the results of public consultation under Section 18(13) of the 2002 National Health Security Act, tasking the office to submit findings to relevant quality control and sub-committees for immediate action. Dr. Amorn Leelarasmee, chairman of the social communications sub-committee, explained that the consultation process ran from October 2024 to June 2025 through district forums, focus groups, field visits, and online channels, with service providers submitting the most suggestions (316 issues), followed by service users (281 issues) and local government organizations (87 issues). The most discussed topics included budget systems and compensation rates, such as adjusting payment rates to match actual costs, faster and continuous fund transfers, reducing disbursement steps, real-time budget tracking systems, and maintaining consistent criteria throughout the year. Suggestions for elderly, disabled, and dependent persons included increasing caregiver compensation, expanding elderly care budgets, and improving access to diapers and assistive devices, while chronic disease prevention proposals called for expanded screening for diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, and cancer alongside health behavior promotion. For primary care and the 30-baht universal healthcare scheme, proposals included connecting referral systems, reducing referral paperwork, expanding telemedicine, and strengthening sub-district health centers, community clinics, pharmacies, and innovative health units, as well as integrating health databases, adding online complaint channels, and increasing flexibility for local health funds. After filtering the 757 suggestions, the board divided them into two groups: 382 issues entered the management process (152 already completed, 164 duplicate proposals consolidated, and 66 outside the board's jurisdiction referred to other agencies), while the remaining 375 issues were forwarded to relevant sub-committees and mechanisms for review, such as 58 issues on payment rates to the fund management committee, 44 on local health funds to the local health security system committee, 40 on primary care and disease prevention, 40 on benefit adjustments to the service scope committee, and 97 for direct board action. Dr. Leelarasmee stressed that sending proposals to responsible parties enables clearer progress, with the ultimate goal of enabling all citizens to access healthcare services that are easy to reach, of high quality, and equitable.