Lacking insurance puts households in many emerging and developing countries at substantial financial risk when faced with severe injury or disease. Often, pre-illness consumption levels cannot be maintained because of high out-of-pocket treatment costs or forgone labor income due to the illness. With exclusive access to a uniquely rich dataset, the proposed project aims to investigate the degree of consumption protection and its underlying mechanisms for Thailand, an emerging country that entitles all its citizens to comprehensive free care at public health facilities. With Thailand being championed internationally as a model case for universal healthcare coverage in a low-/middle-income country, this research is not only relevant in the Thai context. It also aims to contribute to the ongoing international health policy debate on ways to insure large, vulnerable populations against the cost of illness. Moreover, the proposed project will allow us to estimate the financial consequences of illness with both cross-sectional and longitudinal data and estimation techniques. Because of the econometric advantages of longitudinal data analysis, the comparison of results with those obtained from cross-sectional data enables us to test the validity of the cross-sectional approach, i.e. to learn if the cross-sectional approach offers a cost-efficient alternative to the time- and resource-demanding longitudinal approach. The project will exploit high levels of expertise in health economics research and health policy in the host organization and its international network, including close collaboration with a Thai partner institute. Moreover, it will employ the host organization’s excellent contacts to maximize outreach to scientists, practitioners, policymakers, and the general public.