Thailand achieved universal health coverage by 2002 with three public health insurance schemes covering the entire population. Of these, the Social Health Insurance scheme for private sector employees has been run on a capitation contract model since 1991. The Universal Coverage Scheme followed its example, with capitation payments for outpatient services and a global budget with diagnosis-related group-based payments for inpatient care. There are several arguments in favour of this closed-end payment system such as administrative simplicity, efficiency, prevention of supplier-induced demand and long-term cost containment.
