Exactly right. While public hospitals are a lot cheaper than private, still expensive. I had a pacemaker installed a year ago at public hospital. Relatively minor operation as those go, but still cost was 140,000 baht. Not cheap, but better than private hospital. Same operation at BNH was quoted at 560,000 baht. And that was being done by the exact same surgeon, who works at both hospitals. Pays to look at public for major operations, but still not smart to forego insurance.