Thai health ministry to extend service to alien workers
The Ministry of Public Health is considering a plan to extend its health services to foreign workers and others struggling with health care coverage, to ensure access to treatment for those working and living in the Kingdom.
The Ministry of Public Health is considering a plan to extend its healthservices to foreign workers and others struggling with health carecoverage, to ensure access to treatment for those working and living inthe Kingdom.
According to Deputy Permanent Secretary of PublicHealth Wachira Pengchan, the services will be extended to three moregroups of people classified by the Ministry of Interior.
Thefirst group consists of an estimated 170,000 permanent and temporaryresidents waiting for their residency status to be updated. The secondgroup consists of 65,000 school children under state custody, who haveyet to register their identification. The third group consists of peoplewhose status remains unrecognized by the state, such as those without abirth certificate, residential status, or national health securityrights.
The ministry has also planned to extend health servicesvia the sales of health insurance to foreign laborers who cross theborder on a daily basis. The project is expected to reduce the expensesshouldered by local hospitals for the treatment of migrant workers andensure improved access to health services and assistance.
Hospitalsin border provinces have been forced to spend hundreds of millions ofbaht per year treating migrant workers free-of-charge, since mostforeign laborers have no health insurance.-VNA
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