OBJECTIVES: Drug expenditures in Thailand have been rapidly increased every year. A major cause of growing drug expenses is the introduction of western medicine. Thai Ministry of Public Health has implemented a policy to reduce drug expenditures by promoting the use of herbal medicine in all levels of care. In 2011, the proposed policy expects the herbal medicine expenditures grow by 25% of medicine expenditures in hospitals. To be successful in this policy, opinion of health care professionals and their limitations on herbal medicine use must be explored. The purpose of this study is to examine the opinion of health care professionals including physicians, pharmacists, and Thai traditional medicine practitioners on Thai herbal medicine policy.METHODS: Qualitative methods were used. Focus group interviews among the frequent user group and in-depth interviews among occasionally user group were conducted. RESULTS: The findings show the perspective of health care professional on several issues. 1) The policy is difficult to achieve in all levels of health care settings. Primary care and the secondary care units are more suitable for herbal medicine utilization, comparing to tertiary care units. Therefore, the policy should set different expenditure targets on Thai herbal medicine for different levels of health care. 2) Leadership is the key determinant in the success of herbal medicine utilization; and 3) health care professionals were concerned that Thai herbal medicine was not produced according to GMP, and the supply of Thai herbal medicine were insufficient due to limited number of manufacturers and raw materials. CONCLUSIONS: Policy makers should provide clear and transparent protocols and/or policies in order to develop a practical system for promoting the use of herbal medicine at macro-, meso- and micro-level. Furthermore, the policy makers should provide budgetary support and incentive for hospitals that achieve the target in order to promote the use of Thai herbal medicine.