Democratizing Health Care ― Welfare State Building in Korea and Thailand

This book addresses the rise of the welfare state in Asia in the context of milestone health insurance reforms that took place in Korea and Thailand. These reforms, which accomplished universal health coverage in Thailand and a single-payer fund in Korea, established greater equity in access and redistribution in health care, an outcome that defied patterns of retrenchment prevailing in other parts of the world. The intent of this book is to provide a better understanding of the emergence of new progressive welfare actors that introduced citizens' rights to equitable health care into the political discourse, mobilized voter support, and pressured politicians to legislate policy change. The author argues that, in contrast to the traditional welfare actors prominent in the Western experience of welfare state building, Thai and Korean welfare champions were characterized by unique organizational features and were deeply informed by their experiences as activists in their countries' democracy movements. Through an analysis of these two cases, the book illustrates the impact of democracy movements upon producing new democratic actors.

Illan Nam is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Colgate University, USA.