Govt urged to revoke Traffic Victims Act

"Most traffic victims did not receive as much compensation as they need to pay for medical treatment while staying in the hospital and finally they become bankrupt because they don't have enough money to pay the hospital. The blame is on the ineffectiveness of this act," said Dr Paiboon Suriyawongepaisal of Ramathibodi Hospital.

Paiboon, who conducted an evaluation of the Traffic Victims Protection Act since it was enforced in 1992, was speaking at the threeday National Health Assembly in Bangkok last week.

This law is a mandatory scheme in which private insurance companies are the carriers instead of the public sector. The scheme compensates for healthcare costs based on fee for services and maximum liability. The scheme also awards a lump sum payout for death and disability. But during the past 15 years, most victims could not access compensation under this scheme.

Citing an injury surveillance report from the Public Health Ministry spanning 19992005, Paiboon said only 18 per cent of road accident victims received compensation under this act, while 63 per cent had to pay for medical treatment by themselves or use the universal healthcare scheme. And 15 per cent of them relied on other healthcare plans.

The study also found that farmers and labourers were the groups that had to shoulder their own treatment costs the most and eventually become a burden on the hospital.

If accident victims receive emergency care at a state hospital they have to pay the medical bill first and later seek reimbursement from the government, but they need to present many official documents such as a police report.

But in fact, most victims are poor and cannot pay the hospital out of their own pocket. They also are ineligible to apply for financial aid for medical treatment from the hospital.

The law's failure to protect road accident victims has created a windfall for private insurance companies. Their premiums ballooned from Bt6.5 billion in 1999 to Bt10 billion in 2003.

The private insurance companies pay out only 46 per cent of net premiums to settle claims and spend 41 per cent on administrative costs. This is inadequate to cover all traffic victims.

Dr Vitoon Ungpraphan, a legal expert in medicine, said the government should scrap the Traffic Victims Protection Act and draft a new one that transfers the scheme to the National Health Security Office. Then NHSO will pay hospitals directly for medical treatment to victims while the Land Transportation Department will collect the insurance premiums from personal car users instead of private insurers.

"This method will help road accident victims receive fair compensation as the scheme is run by a state agency such as the NHSO and they do not have to waste their time to gather so many documents to claim for health insurance," he added.