Lessons from Thailand: universal healthcare achievements and challenges

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to discuss the successes of Thailand's healthcare system along with challenges it is facing, examining documents and policies used by those charged with developing and implementing health services. Design/methodology/approach - The search pool comprised PubMed and Google Scholar from the period 2001-2015. Selection criterion for inclusion was sources dealing with out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure and healthcare utilization in Thailand. In total, 33 studies met the criterion of containing sufficient data to be included in the meta-analysis. Findings - The authors found a small positive effect size on OOP expenditure and healthcare utilization, obtaining values of 0.1604 (95% CI 0.1320-0.1888, p<0.0001) and 0.2788 (95% CI 0.0917-0.4659, p = 0.0035), respectively. Originality/value - To review and meta-analyze the literature dealing with the outcomes of Thailand's healthcare system to understand whether Thailand's healthcare system is achieving its mandate or not. The results of this paper can help policy makers to understand and evaluate Thailand's healthcare system.