The Public Health Ministry on Wednesday approved the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) proposal to amend the regulations regarding drug use to enforce a "single standard".

FDA chief Phakdi Phothisiri said the change would help reduce the unnecessary use of expensive, new and original imported drugs. Public Health Minister Pinit Charusombat said the move could help cut healthcare costs.

Unlike the government's low-cost healthcare scheme, better known as the Bt30 programme, the SSO's scheme uses drugs with higher standards than those listed on the Essential Drug List.

To adopt the new proposal, a particular law must be amended first, Siriwan said, adding any amendment would have to be approved by the SSO's medical committee and the Social Security Fund committee, which comprises representatives of labour unions that contribute to the fund.

"There's nothing to worry about as we're not going to set a lower standard," she said.

"Only if [the ministry] raises the standard of its Essential Drug List to meet ours will we then agree to follow the proposal."

Dr Warong Dejkijwikrom, a former MP and a member of the opposition party's team on public health affairs, said there were three standards of treatment.

The Bt30 scheme, which uses the Essential Drug List, was the lowest quality, he said.

He accused the government of trying to make the other two schemes alike in terms of treatment quality, and that meant lowering the standards.

"This suggests the government is broke and cunningly is planning to extract money from the SSO's scheme as well as retired civil servants to pay for its healthcare costs," Warong said.