Promoting Productivity and Elderly Care for a Sustainable Thai Economy: Challenges and Solutions

2023-09-13 10:10:00

Because the Thai population in this group will decrease in number. If you want GDP to expand at 4-5% per year like before. It is inevitable that the productivity of Thai workers must be increased.

And increasing productivity is probably the main locomotive. that drives the Thai economy to expand sustainably and reduce inequality The other side of the coin is the challenge of caring for the elderly. especially Caring for the health of the elderly This is a number that will almost double in the next 17 years.

In addition, the average age of the Thai population will increase. It will cause health It is the most important problem. for the economy Society and well-being of all Thai people

Table: Thai population forecast

Public health systemThat is a complex matter both in terms of politics and economics. In the political field Access to good healthcare has become a right.

It’s a matter of health. Economists will analyze that There is an important factor:uncertainty (uncertainty) That is, we will not know when we are old. What kind of disease will we have? And because humans are often afraid of risk (risk averse), therefore, the problem should be solved by encouraging people to take action.Health insurance That is to say

When there is a large population, risk can be assessed more accurately and people who are “lucky” will not develop any disease. You will lose money on insurance premiums. Give it to people who are “unlucky” to develop serious illnesses as they get older.

But this approach has problems as well. When people have health insurance There is a tendency to use the service profusely. This causes the overall cost of health insurance to increase (called moral hazard), so people are often forced to pay. First part of treatment cost (co-payment)

Additionally, there may be cases where people with insurance conceal (negative) information regarding their own health. to pay low insurance premiums And if doing so is widespread. Insurance premiums must increase significantly. This causes people who know that their health is still good to refuse to buy insurance. There will be only people who buy insurance with poor health. and led to the bankruptcy of the health insurance system

Therefore, in the United States The country’s health insurance system, called Obama Care, imposes fines on healthy people. who refused to participate in the federal health insurance program

For Thailand There are different problems:health care systemThere are 4 types: health insurance by health insurance companies Thai government universal health insurance system Health insurance system of the Social Security Fund and health insurance system for civil servants

But for Thailand There is often no co-payment system, so it has been proposed that this approach should be applied to Thailand in order to allow more money to flow into the system. (Because services must be expanded to accommodate the number of elderly people who will inevitably increase)

This guideline It has been used in other countries. I received information that Taiwan has a co-payment system that is very effective in driving the country’s public health system.

But I would like to “look at it from a different angle” from the original idea of ​​economists that The basis of the public health challenge is uncertainty Because lately We will find that almost 75% of premature deaths are caused bynon-communicable diseases (non-communicable disease or NCD), which revolves around 4 main diseases: heart disease (including blood clots in the brain or stroke), cancer, diabetes, dementia.

The 4 diseases mentioned There will be primary causes from almost all lifestyles, such as getting cancer because of smoking. (Being obese can also cause cancer.) Not exercising and not being able to control your weight. Because eating too much sugar will cause heart disease and diabetes, etc.

As for dementia, it has been analyzed that living a healthy lifestyle can reduce the risk of dementia by approximately 40%.

For Thailand I gathered information regarding health trends of Thai people and found that it is a worrisome picture and it should be predicted that health problems will become a national problem, such as

1. From the number of Thai people who areDiabetes Of those 100 people, only 11 can control their blood sugar levels. Thai people with diabetes have increased from 6.9% of the adult population in 2009 to 9.5% of the population in 2021. The main reason is likely that Thai people consume an average of 28% of sugar. teaspoon per day compared to the recommendation to consume no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar per day (diabetes is also a leading cause of kidney failure).

2. From the number of 100 Thai people who have problemshigh blood pressure Only 16 people were able to control their symptoms. This causes the proportion of the population with high blood pressure to increase from 21.4% in 2009 to 25.4% in 2021, which will lead to heart disease and other diseases. related

This is likely due in part to the proportion of Thai people aged 18 years and over who are overweight increasing from 34.7% in 2009 to 42.2% in 2021 and the proportion of Thai people (aged 18 years and over) who exercise less. has increased from 18.5% in 2009 to 43.7% in 2021.

Therefore, I see that Thai people’s health problems are not a matter of uncertainty. and must be fixed quickly By using the guidelines ofPromoting good health (promote healthcare) is not a matter of waiting to come in for treatment (medical care). The public health system will probably need extensive reform to be able to answer these questions.

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