CityNews – Members of the public and members of the Northern Thai Health Security Network stormed out of a meeting to discuss the recent amendments planned for the national health security act, claiming that the meeting with a farce and the act would deprive citizens of their rights to basic healthcare insurance.
One June 11, a conference was held to discuss the new national health security act at the Chiang Mai Grandview hotel, hosted by the steering committee and attended by around 500 participants.
According to the secretary of the National Health Commission Office of Thailand, the conference was designed to be an open platform for discussion and criticism of the act in order to give the steering committee a chance to make any amendments before it is submitted to the house.
However, a representative of the Northern Thai Health Security Network, Suphaporn Thinwattanakul, said the conference was a farce and was held just as a formality to help push the act through without listing to any opinions of the public.
Each speaker had just three minutes to voice their opinions, all of which was rejected immediately by the panel.
Suphaporn claims the new act would deprive citizens the right to basic healthcare insurance, and will undercut access to the universal healthcare schemes known as the ‘gold card’.
The Northern Thai Health Security Network decided to walk out of the conference early, holding placards in protest, expressing their disapproval of how the meeting was being managed and the act itself.
The conference was closed early as a result of the act of protest.