How Thailand's greater convergence created sustainable funding for emerging health priorities caused by globalization.
BACKGROUND
Global health is shifting gradually from a limited focus on individual communicable disease goals to the formulation of broader sustainable health development goals. A major impediment to this shift is that most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have not established adequate sustainable funding for health promotion and health infrastructure.


OBJECTIVE
In this article, we analyze how Thailand, a middle-income country, created a mechanism for sustainable funding for health.


METHODS
We analyzed the progression of tobacco control and health promotion policies over the past three decades within the wider political-economic and sociocultural context. We constructed a parallel longitudinal analysis of statistical data on one emerging priority - road accidents - to determine whether policy shifts resulted in reduced injuries, hospitalizations and deaths.


RESULTS
In Thailand, the convergence of priorities among national interest groups for sustainable health development created an opportunity to use domestic tax policy and to create a semi-autonomous foundation (ThaiHealth) to address a range of pressing health priorities, including programs that substantially reduced road accidents.


CONCLUSIONS
Thailand's strategic process to develop a domestic mechanism for sustainable funding for health may provide LMICs with a roadmap to address emerging health priorities, especially those caused by modernization and globalization.
Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.|Center of Excellence on Environmental Health and Toxicology, Bangkok, Thailand.
Naowarut
N
Charoenca
Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.|Center of Excellence on Environmental Health and Toxicology, Bangkok, Thailand; nipapun.kun@mahidol.ac.th.
Nipapun
N
Kungskulniti
Center for the Study of Communication-Design, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
Jeremiah
J
Mock
Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Center, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Stephen
S
Hamann
Action on Smoking and Health, Bangkok, Thailand.
Prakit
P
Vathesatogkit
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control; D003906:Developing Countries; D005378:Financial Support; D005582:Foundations / Q000191:economics; D014943:Global Health; D006292:Health Priorities / Q000191:economics*; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D013660:Taxes / Q000191:economics*; D013785:Thailand
Thailand; globalization; innovative funding; low- and middle-income countries; non-communicable diseases; post-2015 sustainable development goals; prevention; road accidents; tobacco control