Bt30 healthcare scheme a diamond amid dross
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Re: "Prayut's about-face is vindication for Thaksin", Letters, October 3.
I agree with Robin Grant: Thaksin Shinawatra can take consolation from Prime Minister Prayut telling the UN that the universal healthcare programme initiated by Thaksin was good government policy and has helped reduce inequality. It is widely acknowledged that the Bt30 scheme has helped Thailand’s poor get access to healthcare at minimal cost.
However, the rest of Thaksin’s populist programme seems merely to have piled more woe onto the country’s poor, generally making them poorer.
The Bt1-million village loans, credit cards for farmers, the first-car tax rebate and the rice-price-pledging scheme have caused household debt among the poor to double to more than 80 per cent of GDP over the past decade.
In my opinion, it was not an about-face for Prayut to praise Thaksin’s healthcare scheme as being of benefit to the country. It was merely a gentlemanly acknowledgement.
Vint Chavala
