Ex-civil servants up in arms over new gerulation on medical benefits

A 74-year-old former secondary-school director, Jareuk Ayawong, and a 70-year-old housewife, Thongbai Boonpamorn, are among more than 300,000 elderly retired civil servants affected by a new regulation denying civil servants reimbursement for the drug glucosamine to treat osteoarthritis.

Jareuk has been suffering from osteoarthritis of the knee for three years. During the past few years, he went to a state hospital every month to receive a box of glucosamine, which was sufficient to treat his problem for a month. He said he had been taking this drug for three years and his condition had improved slightly.

"I had no pain in the knee after taking glucosamine," he said.

However, the situation changed last month when doctors at state hospitals stopped prescribing the drug, following a new regulation by the Comptroller-General's Department. The regulation said subscribers to the civil servant medical benefit scheme could not be prescribed glucosamine, as the department considered the drug was of no benefit for arthritis treatment.

"I had no drug to relieve my knee pain for a month," Jareuk said.

He has to spend about Bt1,000 per month to buy a box of glucosamine to treat his knee pain but with a monthly income of only about Bt20,000, it is not affordable, he said.

"Most of my monthly income is spent on drugs and medical treatment.

"How could I have enough money to live my life if the Comptroller-General's Department cuts reimbursement for drugs to treat chronic problems?"

Most retired civil servants work hard to serve the public at relatively low salaries for their whole lives. They should receive good medical benefit to treat their chronic health problems when they get old, he argued.

"The new regulation will lower the quality of our lives," he said.

Thongbai, who had been treating her knee pain for the past two years with glucosamine from state hospitals, has also been told since last month that the state hospital could not provide her the drug any longer because of the new regulation.

"Whether the health experts categorise glucosamine as a drug or a supplement, my condition has improved since I started taking it two years ago," she said.

She urged the government to repeal the Comptroller-General Department's new regulation as it reduced civil servants' rights to access medical treatment.

"The government has promised to take care us for our whole lives, but this regulation has totally affected the quality of our lives," she said.

Poonsri Paowarat, a member of the Civil Service Commission, said a group of civil servants who were affected by the regulation yesterday filed a complaint with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at Government House and urged the government to revoke this regulation, as it reduced their medical benefits.

"Medicine is necessary for patients to save their lives, and the government should let doctors make the decision on the drugs to treat patients," she said.