The Bloomberg Health Care Efficiency Index ranks Thailand 27th among 56 countries, up from 41st place last year. It is found that the life expectancy has advanced to 75.1 years plus the medical tourism industry is among the fastest-growing industries.
So, how does this Index rank countries? It is done on the basis of an average population lifespan of minimum 70 years, a minimum population of 5 million and GDP per capita exceeding US $5,000 per year.
This year’s index has only three ASEAN countries at display; Singapore holds the second place, while Thailand 27th and Malaysia 29th. In here, Thailand did pretty well than many developed countries, with United Kingdom ranking 35th, Denmark 41st, the US 54th, and Germany 45th.
However, in the Asia-Pacific, the country’s health care efficiency ranked 9th, just behind Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, China and South Korea.
Similarly, Mr. Prayut noted that WHO had named Thailand as a model or a source of learning about the Universal healthcare. The country’s healthcare system has so many strengths, from low cost, standard hospitals and strong government support and world-class services.
Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn, Public Health Minister, also acclaimed the kingdom’s jump in the global index. However, Nimit said that more can be done for public health like fairer budget allocation for the people in the bureaucratic system. He added that the government should help in lowering the cost of medicines by encouraging and bettering the quality of generic drugs by manufacturing them locally. Also, the government should boost the potential of local state-run health centers, so that they can assist the large hospitals to deal with the patients.
