On September 23, 2019 H.E. General Prayut Chan-o-cha (Ret.), Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, attended the High-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage (HLM on UHC) which was organized by the UN Secretary-General and the President of the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters (UNHQ), New York, to reaffirm Thailand’s commitment to achieve UHC in 2030 as well as SDGs.

In his address,  H.E. General Prayut Chan-o-cha highlighted Thailand’s UHC experiences, which has been guided by the following three principles: firstly, equity, the Royal Thai Government has developed a healthcare system that is accessible to all; secondly, efficiency, the Government is determined to enhance UHC efficiency by earmarking 15% of the UC Scheme budget for health promotion, increasing the use of revenue from taxes on alcohol and tobacco, and supporting the establishment of local health funds; and lastly, participation by all stakeholders – public and private sectors as well as civil society – especially in driving the people-centred UHC system.  Moreover, the Prime Minister also emphasized that Thailand commits to improving the UHC scheme, and stands ready to share its knowledge and experiences to other countries.

Later in the afternoon, H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand co-chaired the 2^nd panel multi-stakeholder discussion on “Accelerating multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder action and investments for achieving UHC” with H.E. Dr. Adolfo Rubinstein, Secretary of Government for Health of Argentina.  The Thai Foreign Minister emphasized the importance of multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder action to advance UHC.

This meeting was an opportunity for Thailand to highlight its leading and innovative role in global public health, especially UHC for which Thailand, as one of the members of the Foreign Policy and Global Health Group, proposed the resolutions to designate the 12th of December of each year as the International Universal Health Coverage Day and to organize this high-level meeting on UHC.  The Permanent Representative of Thailand to the UN, together with the Permanent Representative of Georgia to the UN, co-facilitated the drafting of the political declaration of the UHC high-level meeting, which was adopted by the world leaders earlier in the day.