The Thai insurance regulator, Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC), aims to build a private health insurance system that can perform the role of a health partner, and accelerate the expansion of the insured base and control system costs in the country.
Thailand is coping with an ageing society and surging medical inflation. It needs an infrastructure that can secure and make country's health system sustainable.
OIC Secretary General Mr Chuchat Pramunphon expressed his views while delivering a special address on "Promoting Thailand's Private Health Insurance System" at the 21st Thailand Insurance Medical Academic Conference 2026. The Conference was organised with the theme that the private health insurance system is not only a financial mechanism but also one that ensures the sustainability of the country's health system.
He said the country’s ageing society and the trend of rising health expenditure that significantly outpaces the general inflation rate are a major challenge to the long-term sustainability of the system.
Mr Pramunphon said, “It is not an increase in the number of insureds, which may lead to a cycle of high premiums. Healthy people leave the system and affect the stability of the insurance system as a whole.
“The OIC aims to drive policies under the concept of 'Balancing access to services, quality of care, and sustainability of the system' by setting out key guidelines such as expanding the insured base to the middle-income group and those on government welfare in order for private health insurance to complement the main system.”
He said the OIC aims to promote the use of public hospitals along with the concept of value-based healthcare to reduce overall costs. This includes the promotion of the Standard Medical Cost Database and data linkage through a central system to increase transparency and appropriate premium determination, as well as the systematic management of medical inflation and the use of copayment measures to promote appropriate medical service usage behaviour.