Even though the eligibility criteria was not changed according to the economic growth, the percentage of people receiving Low Income Card were nearly the same in 1984 and 1990 issuance, i.e. 20.2% and 19.2% of the total population respectively. The coverage was intentionally dropped to 14.5% in 1987 due to the promotion of the Health Card Project.
The Rural Health Division and Mahidol University (1988) found that the scheme covered only 28% of the eligible poor and 20% of the cards were distributed to the ineligible people. The percent coverage might be underestimated because the poor defined by this study were as high as 62.4% of the sample population. The NSO socioeconomic survey (SES) in the same year showed that households that have monthly income lower than 2000 Baht in the rural area was only 43.8%. The correct coverage in that study should be 17.5% of the total population or 39.9% of the eligible poor.
Mongkolsmai D. (1993) noticed that means test for the “single poor” is almost 4 times the poverty line. It should cover at least all of those under the poverty line or 23.7% of the population in 1988/89. However, single person account for less than 10% of the population.The means test for an average household of 3.9 persons ( 2,000 Baht / household / month or 6,154 Baht/person/year) was 1.5 times of the poverty line for the rural population or nearly the same level as the poverty line for the urban population.
Monkolsmai D (1993) compared the percentage of LIC holders in each region with percentage of poor population determined by means test and poverty line. In 1987, the LIC holders accounted for 14.5% of total population, 28.3% of the low income people determined by means test, and 49.2% of the poor determined by poverty line. The percentage of LIC holder compared with those below the poverty line rise to 81.0% in the 1990 issuance.
In table 3-5, the author used monthly household income from SES 1988 and 1990 to determine the percentage of eligible household, i.e. household income below 2,000 Baht. The percentage of LIC holders was then compare with the percentage of eligible households. It was found that the percent of eligible households dropped from 35.3% in 1987 to 25.2% in 1990 because the income level for eligibility was the same. The number of LIC holders increased from 7.6 millions to 10.7 millions. Thus, the coverage of LIC for the eligible households increases from 41.1% in 1987 to 76.2% in 1990. The leakage of LIC to the non-eligible might lower these figures.
