Thai government health fund covers almost entire country

BANGKOK, August 18 (TNA) - Public Health Minister Wittaya Buranasiri says that the Thai government has allocated a budget of about 2.4 billion baht annually to promote good health of people nationwide and the mission now appears to be almost complete. Speaking at the Money Expo Korat 2012 fair, held in Thailand's northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima province Saturday, Wittaya acknowledged that a government main objective is to see people countrywide have strong health, and that the administration has, therefore, allocated a budget of approximately 2.4 billion baht annually to support the establishment of the Health Security Fund in municipalities throughout the country. According to the public health minister, the fund has been 99.3 per cent established, out of the total, with some 188,000 projects having been carried out so far, and he expects the fund should be able to cover the remaining local communities by next year. Meanwhile, the Public Health Ministry is also stepping up its effort to reduce the consumption of raw freshwater fishes, which is the cause of cholangiocarcinoma and has claimed the life of some 28,000 working people in the Thai Northeast annually. Deputy Public Health Minister Surawit Khonsomboon told reporters, after calling a meeting with all concerned agencies, that both cholangiocarcinoma and opisthorchiasis have constituted a health threat to the national economy, security and the well-being of Thai people, especially those in the Northeast. Surawit said his ministry has, thus, targeted to reduce opisthorchiasis mortality to five of every 100,000 and cholangiocarcinoma mortality to 20 of every 100,000 within 2016 through strategies to be implemented in the coming months. (TNA)