Thailand has succeeded in expandingcoverage of publicly-funded and publicly-managed healthinsurance schemes, following the introduction of universalhealth coverage policy in 2001. While Thailand’s achievementof universal health coverage (UC) is well noted, recentresearches and studies have indicated that there are stillgaps in health utilization and financial protection. Arecent study by Thailand’s health insurance system researchoffice (HISRO) shows that utilization of health services bypatients of three main health insurance schemes combinedincreased markedly after age 45 for both outpatient care andin-patient care but later dropped during an advanced age.Utilization of out-patient care services decreases amongpatients who are over 75 years of age while that ofin-patient care services decreases after 85 years of age.The objective of the study is to identify the gaps ofaccessing UC scheme’s care system by the elderly population,focusing on utilization and financial protection aspects.The team conducted small-scale area-based qualitative casestudies, focusing on elderly UC members who live in selectedurban and rural areas in four different geographical regionsof Thailand - Central, North, Northeastern, and South. Theanalysis confirms that there are poor elderly people whostill need to pay for the costs of out-patient andin-patient care services at publicly run health facilities.
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