In a social setting, I was told by a Thai doctor who works at a private hospital that the so-called “30 Baht” medical plan for Thais doesn’t cover MRIs for patients with known or suspected cases of cancer and that the plan only covers old generation chemo drugs because they are cheaper. He gave specific examples of limitations of the plan as being that since the only chemo drug available in Thailand that is applicable to brain cancer is Temozolomide, which is wildly expensive, that the only treatment offered under the 30 baht plan for patients with a brain tumor would be surgery and radiation. And in the case of a woman having breast cancer, he claims that the plan would pay for a mastectomy but not for reconstructive surgery.
Overall he was painting a picture of the Standard Of Cancer Care under the 30 Baht plan being about on par Standard of Care in the West 50 years ago. That doctor clearly has a vested interest in discouraging people from going to a government hospital but he isn’t our doctor, we were just speaking in generalists about the healthcare systems of different countries. Is what he’s saying at all accurate?