Re: "Ministry stands by price control list", (Business, Jan 12).
As a foreigner living in Bangkok, I am in total agreement with the Commerce Ministry in its plans to set price controls on private hospitals.
For too long private hospitals have been able to charge for their services and prescription medicines with little or no thought as to how these sometimes ridiculous charges have an effect on the insurance premiums paid by their customers. How there can be any justification by private hospitals to levy a charge three times the price of prescription medicine purchased in a street side pharmacy needs investigation. The reasoning that their locations and that they are considerably cheaper than American hospitals justifies their charges doesn't, in my opinion, cut it. We all don't come from America and what has location got to do with the loaded price of imported medicine?
I am reliably informed that what a patient thinks he or she is paying for the doctor's charge is not necessarily what the doctor gets in payment, with a large percentage of the charge taken by the hospital as a contribution to its overheads and profit.
The facts are that there is very little profit to be made by SET-listed international hospitals from selling drugs or doctors fees. The real money is made from lengthy surgical procedures and bed/room rates. Just like any five-star hotel, occupancy numbers are the name of the game and it's not unusual to see charges ranging from five to ten thousand baht per night, with nursing and meal charges on top.
On one occasion I had the unfortunate need, so the doctor claimed, to be admitted to my local hospital's ICU at a charge of thirty thousand baht per night. Yes, there is a need for price control.
Biker Bri
Archaic bureaucracy
Re: "Not wanted here", (PostBag, Jan 12).
I agree with what Boomerang says about the attitude of Thai authorities towards foreigners living in the kingdom. I choose to live in this country in the hope that attitudes towards people like me will change over time.
However, after 18 years of living here, I see no significant improvement in virtually anything in Thai life, except for the proliferation of shopping malls and cars on the road -- if these are really to be seen as signs of real progress? There has been no discernible improvement in the excessive levels of corruption at all levels of Thai society, the paltry levels of pay for most people, the hugely ineffective police force which is run for profit and not law enforcement, the inadequate welfare state, the overcrowded and infrequent public transport, the levels of material poverty, the desire for a democratic kleptocracy, nor in the rules and regulations dreamt up by the immigration authorities. I could go on!
I sometimes wish that other countries would retaliate and impose similarly archaic, bureaucratic and unwelcoming rules and regulations on Thai residents living or studying in, say, the UK. Wouldn't it be great to see the fugitive Thaksin family members and "Red Bull" runaways join a long queue every 90 days to confirm their address with the immigration police, and be required to renew their visas on an annual basis following a compulsory medical examination, signing endless pieces of paper, and jumping through other, ever-changing hoops each year.
Nonetheless, I remain the eternal optimist that one day Thailand will find a real leader who can truly transform this country into the "Land of Smiles" because everyone is reasonably content and living a reasonably sustainable life in relative harmony with one another ... or maybe I will be forced to wake up and leave my dream forever!
GMT
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