Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question, is medical privacy just, we are done with that? I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: New Thai Health Insurance policy for foreigners in border regions only. Quoting directly: "Press reports that a new registration scheme will help boost access to healthcare for foreign nationals and the stateless is creating confusion in expat circles. Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew is launching a new scheme on January 1, 2024," (interesting date that, January 1 2024; a lot of things happening January 1 2024. Changes to tax policy here in Thailand; a lot going on.) In any event, quoting further: "to assist non-Thai people and the stateless to get quicker access to public hospital coverage by computerized registration which will take 5 minutes as opposed to the old system requiring weeks or months."

Okay, cool. And when you get into this article and I urge those who are watching this go check out that article, you will see, primarily this program is being brought online for, for lack of a better word and I don't want to use a blanket term and say refugees because it is not necessarily the case. There are also economic migrants as we have discussed in other videos separate. Thailand kind of has its own separate scheme for dealing with countries that border Thailand and that have a lot of migrant labour that come into Thailand. So for example, there is a specific regime if you will pertaining to work authorization and Immigration for those from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar that differs greatly from the programs that pertain to other foreign nationalities here in Thailand, so there's that to begin with. Understand, that is primarily what this is being rolled out for is to help those folks. On the one hand that is a good thing, it is, I am not going to say it's not and if it is a program that results in folks that are in really, sounds to me like in dire straits they are able to get some quality medical care in 5 minutes rather than weeks, that is definitely a good thing. But as a once or I should say as one of the past great jurist minds once said, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" and while there are good intentions behind this, I think it is worth noting that since COVID, I have just noticed over and over when there is a medical thing, the notion of medical privacy just isn't even mentioned anymore. That your medical records are your own; that is not everyone's business what is going on between you and your doctor. And for whatever reason again through the sensationalization of COVID I guess is probably the biggest factor that I think has unfortunately rattled people's logical thinking but they just seem to have forgotten about medical privacy. Look I think I find it very Orwellian that there is some digital ID system associated with people's getting medical treatment. That just seems incorrect to me. Then meanwhile I am always I am always fascinated when it is sort of presented, the premise is presented that "oh we have this great solution, yeah never mind that it is Orwellian because hey the system we currently have is out of whack' instead of somebody saying "hey why don't you just rectify the system as it is". No, no, no, no can't do that we need to bring this digital system that tracks and traces everything rather than fix the system that by the way we the bureaucrats created.

So again, I always kind of find these arguments that arise or these presumptions I should say, that arise in connection with medicine basically, with Medical Care, Health Care in the modern world, I often find these sort of how do I put it, again it's surreal and quite honestly it is almost Kafkaesque at this point, and then, not to sound cliché but it is pretty Orwellian in that now to get medical care you got to you have got this digital system. Again I see why they are doing it. I think it's a good thing in this limited sort of fact pattern that these folks who are in dire straits they need medical care, we need a fast way to get it to them, okay fine. But that said, let's keep a close eye on this whole thing because I personally do not want to be bagged and tagged the next time I go to a hospital.