The Thai civil registration (CR) systemwas established two centuries ago. Over the past fourdecades, the system has changed from a manual, paper-basedregistration system to a centralized, electronic, onlinesystem. A unique identification number (UIN) system wasimplemented in 1982, along with a computerized CR databasesystem. The Thai citizen identification card has evolvedalong with the two systems from a paper card to anintegrated circuit–chip smart card. All provincial-,district-, and municipality-level registration offices arelinked online to the central CR system database. Thailand’svital statistics (VS) system has improved since 1996, whenthe CR system began feeding electronic birth and death datadirectly into the VS management system. VS reports are nowup to date, of good quality, and available for use by anyagency that needs them. Thailand declared its universalhealth coverage (UHC) policy in 2001. Health insurancecoverage was expanded to all Thais through the UniversalCoverage Scheme. The use of UINs and CR databases hasenabled and facilitated rapid enrollment of beneficiariesand improved the beneficiary registries of all three of thecountry’s major insurance plans. All Thais are entitled tocoverage from one of these plans. The use of UINs andpersonal demographic information from the CR systemsignificantly improved the quality of health careinformation and provider payment systems. Misuse of UINs andpersonal information in CR is threatening the integrity ofthe UIN and central CR databases. New initiatives by theThai government, such as the National Digital IdentificationPlatform project, are ongoing to expand e-government andprivate services and to prevent the misuse of personalinformation and personal identity challenges.
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