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The role of government in social welfare involves health care/aid. Both Australia and Thailand issue free universal healthcare to their citizens and health care is provided by both private and government institutions. Australia’s healthcare system is called Medicare whereas Thailand’s healthcare system is called Universal Coverage Scheme, though both schemes are alike. A great percentage is spent on the Health Sector by the federal government, funding approximately 16.3% (AUD 81.1 billion) of the Australian Government's total expenditure (APH 2019). On the other hand, the Thailand government allocated an estimated 13.3% (AUD 43.1 billion) of the total budget to public health services (Export.Gov 2019). The insurance packages had provided irregular and often unaffordable coverage before the introduction of Thailand’s Universal Coverage Scheme in 2001. As a consequence, almost a quarter of Thai people were uninsured. By 2002, ¾ of the population (approximately 50 million people) were provided coverage by the UCS and accounted for 17% of the country’s healthcare expenditure. The situation in Australia before Medicare was much the same as in Thailand, medical expenses could push people into poverty when someone required hospital treatments, many families quickly faced financial pressures and so when Bob Hawke introduced Medicare it was an immediate success.
A challenge in particular is the social welfare of pensioners. Thailand still spends drastically less on the scheme as a portion of GDP (0.5 percent) than other poorer nations with social pensions (e.g. Timor-Leste, Namibia, Georgia South Africa, and Bolivia) despite the expansion of the Old Age Allowance. This denotes that with political will the competence of the scheme could be further improved. Currently, there are plans on the table to finance a top-up for the Old Age Allowance by raising the excise tax on cigarettes, which has been effective in Australia. Aging of the population would increase the scheme cost, though still well below the pension expenditure in OECD countries as a share of GDP. Steadily increasing the age of eligibility of the scheme to around 65 years would help contain costs, similar to Australia. In the meantime, measures to reinforce contributory elements of the pension system to deliver advanced levels of protection. Key priorities are to improve the adequacy of welfare and to lessen the fragmentation of the system. In 2006, the Australian government increased excise taxes on cigarettes to AUD 40 which led Australia to having one of the highest-priced cigarettes in the world. Increasing the cost of tobacco taxes is an effective strategy as it sets aside additional funding for Age Pension expenditure and also reduces tobacco use.
In conclusion, Australia and Thailand are two important economies globally. Nonetheless, there are still steps to ensure economic growth despite both economies facing positive and sustained levels of growth. Thailand and Australia have many similarities and a few differences in their government, although there is still room for improvement in social welfare.
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