Thailand’s policy on universal health coverage (UHC) has made good progress since its inception in 2002. Every Thai citizen is now entitled to essential preventive, curative and palliative health services at all life stages. Like its counterparts elsewhere, however, the policy faces challenges. A predominantly tax-financed system in a nation with a high proportion of people living in poverty will always strive to contain rising costs. Disparities exist among the different health insurance schemes that provide coverage for Thai citizens. National health expenditure is heavily borne by the government, primarily to reduce financial barriers to access for the poor. The population is ageing and the disease profiles of the population are changing alongside the modernization of Thai people’s lifestyles. Thailand is now aiming to enhance and sustain its UHC policy. We examine the merits of different policy options and aim to identify the most promising and feasible way to enhance and sustain UHC. We argue that developing the existing primary care system in Thailand has the greatest potential to provide more self-sustaining, efficient, equitable and effective UHC. Primary care needs to move from its traditional role of providing basic disease-based care, to being the first point of contact in an integrated, coordinated, community-oriented and person-focused care system, for which the national health budget should be prioritized.

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Growth of Pacific saury Cololabis saira (Brevoort) inhabiting the western North Pacific was studied based on counting daily growth increments with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The small-size group (knob length: 200-240 mm), medium-size group (knob length: 240-280 mm) and large size group (knob length: >280 mm) showed increments of 256•}26.0 (S.D.), 405•}76.1 and 566•}48.2, respectively. Based on daily growth increment formation, we determined that the ages of the 3 groups were about 8, 13, and 19 months. Small and large-size fish were considered to have been hatched from autumn to winter, and medium-size fish from spring to summer. The oldest specimen of Pacific saury examined in this study was about 23 months of age; thus, the lifespan of Pacific saury in this area seems to be at least 1.5 years.

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The forestomach contents of 114 minke whales Balaenoptera acutorostrata randomly sampled in the northwestern part of the North Pacific in the summer of 1994 and 1995 were analyzed. Twelve prey species consisting of 7 fishes, 4 euphausiids and 1 copepod were identified. Pacific saury Cololabis saira was the most important prey species, occurring in 77.2% of the stomachs and composing 80.6% of the weight ingested, with some spatial and temporal variation. Japanese anchovy Engraulis japonicus was the next most important prey species, occurring in 14.0% of the stomachs and composing 6.7% of the weight ingested. Diurnal changes in the mean forestomach content weight and in the relative freshness of the forestomach contents showed little change between 06:00-18:00 h. The minke whales fed mainly on pelagic schooling fishes at the surface in the daytime.

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