The Ministry of Public Health is considering a plan to extend its health services to foreign workers and others struggling with health care coverage, to ensure access to treatment for those working and living in the Kingdom.

According to Deputy Permanent Secretary of Public Health Wachira Pengchan, the services will be extended to three more groups of people classified by the Ministry of Interior.

The first group consists of an estimated 170,000 permanent and temporary residents waiting for their residency status to be updated. The second group consists of 65,000 school children under state custody, who have yet to register their identification. The third group consists of people whose status remains unrecognized by the state, such as those without a birth certificate, residential status, or national health security rights.

The ministry has also planned to extend health services via the sales of health insurance to foreign laborers who cross the border on a daily basis. The project is expected to reduce the expenses shouldered by local hospitals for the treatment of migrant workers and ensure improved access to health services and assistance.

Hospitals in border provinces have been forced to spend hundreds of millions of baht per year treating migrant workers free-of-charge, since most foreign laborers have no health insurance.-VNA