Satit Wongnongtoei, Democrat Party MP, revealed that a senior political figure in the government tried to extort over 1 billion baht from the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) but failed. Frustrated by this, he proposed amending the law to allow ThaiHealth to receive funding from the state budget instead of relying on the sin tax.
At 14:00 on 12 Nov 2026, the House of Representatives convened with Second Deputy Speaker Lertsak Pattanachayakul presiding, to consider the annual report of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) for 2024 and 2025. During the session, Satit Wongnongtoei, a party-list MP from the Democrat Party, spoke out against amending the ThaiHealth law to change its funding source to the government budget system, fearing political control that could lead to budget cuts and instability if the government disapproved.
Satit further stated there were strong suspicions that the proposed amendment to the ThaiHealth law stemmed from political interference in its budget. High-ranking government politicians sought hundreds of millions of baht from ThaiHealth for provinces where their families lead local administrative organizations. However, ThaiHealth responded that there were criteria to evaluate funding requests, which angered these government executives. Additionally, advisors to these senior politicians requested several hundred million baht more from ThaiHealth for certain provinces.
More seriously, the Ministry of Public Health also requested 800 million baht from ThaiHealth, making the total over 1 billion baht. Satit challenged ThaiHealth to confirm whether this is true, as rumors suggest political figures asked for funds and were refused, prompting the push to amend ThaiHealth’s law. He urged society to watch closely and called on ThaiHealth’s management to address these reports.