Context: The Thai Rak Thai political party, led by Mr. Thaksin Shinawat, won the 2001 election. Thaksin's regime was the beginning of the populist era in Thai politics. Thaksin employed multiple populist campaigns, including our example.
“The Thai Rak Thai political party indicated that the scheme would provide health care for everyone, regardless of the type of illness or severity of the illness, at 30 baht, presumably per visit or per sickness.” This policy was implemented nationwide at the beginning of 2002. The scheme was suspected to be targeted at poorer citizens and was eventually exposed by financial issues and bad management. In order to cap medical expenses at 30 baht, citizens needed to carry a card indicating that they were under government aid. But due to bad management, reports of citizens who did not receive their card due to mislabeling. Furthermore, the scheme led to many drug-seeking behaviors from the drastic decrease in drug cost; the medical staff had a difficult time differentiating real patients from others. Additionally, the scheme was funded directly by taxes collected from government revenue (from multiple types of taxes).
Nonetheless, Thaksin and his government were highly praised by the majority of Thai citizens for providing affordable healthcare. The scheme lowered the financial burden of poorer individuals, as shown by the graph on the left. The graph illustrates the percentage of health expenses to household income. In 2002, the percentage id half of the previous year, which helped relieve financial stress on households. As a result, the poverty rate decreased from 2.15 percent to 0.7 percent during the period that the policy was active.