DOI: 10.14457/tu.the.2015.451
title: Cross-border healthcare services in the United Kingdom under EU directive 2011/24/EU and regulation (EC) no. 883/2004: lessons for Thailand

description: At the present time, Thailand has problems that need to be solved which are inequity in accessing to healthcare services and difference of the benefits packages of insured persons under the three Thailand’s healthcare models: National Health Security Scheme, Civil Servant and State Enterprise Scheme, and Social Security Scheme. The system that covers most Thai people is the National Health Security Scheme, which is aimed to create security in healthcare for all Thai people. Thai people should have efficient healthcare treatment, and they should not have problems pertaining to monetary or financial issues as an obstacle to receiving basic healthcare treatment. Besides, management in healthcare system still needs to be developed to take care of people. Patients’ rights, including reimbursement right, should not be ignored but be considered in both the domestic and international perspectives.  Healthcare itself on domestic level involves complex issues, but when it is on the international context or cross-border context, it becomes even more complicated. Therefore, there should be legal mechanisms to facilitate cross-border healthcare services. The possible solution is learning from the United Kingdom under European Union’s experience. EU legislation might be an appropriate model for arrangements of cross-border healthcare services including patient’s reimbursement, control quality and safety, and cooperation across borders. Many principles from EU Directive, Regulation, and European Court of Justice Rulings might be adaptable to our Thai healthcare system under the ASEAN’s context such as the reference network group, e-health, quality control mechanism, providing information by establishing National Contact Points, etc.Having inspected ASEAN’s current cooperation, as the ASEAN is just in the first stage of aggregation – economic aggregation – the patients’ reimbursement rights among countries in the ASEAN and healthcare cooperation on the international level still need further and heightened attention. Currently, there are cross-border arrangements between Singapore and Malaysia. In Singapore, patients can go to seek healthcare treatment in Malaysia and they can reimburse by using their Medical Savings Account registered in Singapore. This signifies that cross-border healthcare in mutual arrangements may occur more in the future. The reasons to establish cross-border healthcare services are on grounds of the undeniability that in the current situation where people enjoy convenience to go across borders due to the advancement of technologies and lower cost of transportation fees, cross-border healthcare services are important in many perspectives, for example, helping patients receive healthcare treatment in time when their health is at mortal risk and simultaneously there is a shortage of high-technology healthcare to treat people domestically; in the case of long waiting list domestically; and it creates confidence of patients that they could receive healthcare treatment when they travel or work abroad, at least in case of emergency. Therefore, the analyses of cross-border healthcare services and health laws in Thailand under the ASEAN’s context and the United Kingdom under the European Union’s context would be beneficial for the development of healthcare system and heighten the quality of people’s lives.