Press Release: Child dependent of migrant workers in Phuket allowed to purchase health insurance After complaint and consultation on problems concerning the purchase of health insurance of dependents of migrant workers in Phuket
1 July 2022
Press Release
Child dependent of migrant workers in Phuket allowed to purchase health insurance
After complaint and consultation on problems concerning the purchase of health insurance of dependents of migrant workers in Phuket
On 22 June 2022, representatives of the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF) in Phuket and the Diocesan Social Action Center Of Suratthani Catholic Foundation in Phuket along with one female migrant worker have gone to the Health Checkup and Health Insurance Service Center for Alien Workers at Vachira Phuket Hospital to purchase a health insurance card for a child dependent of migrant workers and has received the card properly on the same day.
The case stems from an incidence in February 2022 when HRDF has received a complaint from a female migrant worker from Myanmar, mother of a one-year-old-Girl S in the last week of January that she tried to make a purchase of health insurance card for her daughter from the Vachira Phuket Hospital in Ko Sire, and the officer there refused to sell her the card claiming Girl S was unhealthy due to her heart valve disease. Later, HRDF’s attorney with authorization has sent a letter addressed to the Director of Vachira Phuket Hospital seeking to purchase a health insurance card on her behalf, although it has yielded no response.
HRDF has sent further letters and participated in a meeting with concerned authorities on 18 Mary 2022. The online meeting was attended by representatives from the Vachira Phuket Hospital, the Phuket Provincial Public Health Authority, the Office of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, and the Office of the Minister of Public Health to follow up and consult on legal issues concerning the policy to sell health insurance cards and facts about the case.
During the consultation with concerned authorities, it was explained that mother of Girl S has actually submitted an application asking to purchase a health insurance card for her child the last week of January. During the review of documents, the officer has found her work permit was about to expire on 31 March 2022, and as a result of which the officer has used their discretion to deny her purchase and the mother was asked to renew her work permit prior to resubmitting the purchase form of health insurance. They denied that this had anything to do with the child’s health.
Penpiccha Jankomol, HRDF’s Coordinator, opines that the use of discretion by the officer was an exercise of an administrative power whether to allow migrant workers with valid work permits and residency in the Kingdom to be entitled to purchasing the health insurance cards for their dependents, pursuant to Article 7.3 of the Health Checkup and Health Insurance Measures for Aliens, the Ministry of Public Health, B.E. 2562, or not.
Regarding the denial of the right to purchase a health insurance card of a dependent, the case of Girl S, it was found that the Phuket Provincial Public Health Authority has imposed a general requirement for the health insurance registration of migrant workers that the persons must not be deemed having a health risk. This shall be determined on a case-by-case basis by a medical doctor whether a health insurance card should be sold or not. But in general, the cards shall only be sold to workers who are ready to work. The problem occurred when such vague requirement was invoked and applied to a child or a dependent of migrant workers during the selling of health insurance cards, the procedure of which might not be proper since it deprives the migrant workers’ children or dependents the right to have access to basic health services.
Penpiccha notes that the regulations concerning health insurance registration of migrant workers’ children are currently tied up with personal documents of their parents. This poses a grave obstacle to the child’s health insurance registration including the case of Girl S who was denied access to such health insurance card based on the facts that her mother’s work permit was about to expire in two months. Therefore, the Ministry of Public Health should revise and change such regulations concerning health insurance registration to ensure that dependents of migrant workers shall be entitled to purchase health insurance cards and have access to public health services in compliance with the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand BE 2560’s Sections 47 coupled with the policy to protect migrant workers and their dependents pursuant to the pledges made by the government leaderships that no one shall be left behind and the best interest principle of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Thailand is a state party.
For more information, please contact Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF)’s Phuket Chapter, 087-4230999