Mandatory travel insurance and GPS trackers for foreign tourists mooted by Thai tourism officials

[Athens]

Thanks to Thaivisa.....info provided in this forum.

 

[Expatthailover]

Fair enough too.

If you can afford a holiday you can afford the insurance.

The generosity and kindness of thailand can only stretch so far

[Time Traveller]

40 minutes ago, bkk75 said:

They have a point.  There are many tourists and long term stayers that come/live here without any type of insurance. It's insane...

 

If you can't show that you have travel/health insurance then you can be mandated to buy one before immigration let you through.

 

Yes safety standards need to be improved and enforced but this is still a developing country.  Like it or not..it will take a millennial for any improvement to materialize.  

 

 

How do you know many people don't have insurance? What's your source?

What does it matter that they don't have (overpriced) insurance anyway? Government has no obligation pay their bills, and hospitals are businesses. All businesses know that it's difficult to get paid from some of their customers. And no obligation to treat anyone.

The only thing I can  say (from seeing how Obamacare screwed up the insurance in America), if Thailand goes down the compulsory insurance path, is that the Thailand will be dead as a tourist destination. 

What next? Every tourist must buy meal vouchers for each day of their stay or they get turned away by immigration?

[Lucky mike]

Sounds like an exercise in sales prevention !

[sawadee1947]

20 hours ago, madmitch said:

It should be quite easy to make travel or international health insurance a requirement when applying for a visa. Schengen does it. It is harder to implement for 30 day stamp on arrival tourists unless they have a checkpoint prior to immigration to check insurance policies and if a tourist is found not to have cover they send them to a desk to buy a policy. 

 

Secondly they seem to state that the Government has covered losses of 64m baht following the boat disaster. Does that mean the Chinese were uninsured? What about the legal liability of the boat-owners and tour companies? Will the Government subrogate against them or will the Chinese receive additional payouts? 

 

And thirdly, the if the compensation fund is worth, say, 150m baht it's a very small amount for an industry that produces, according to figures, around 3 trillion baht per annum. I suppose protecting tourists isn't as important as buying part of a submarine.

 

Finally, how will compulsory insurance improve safety in Thailand?

You are absolutely right. 

I wonder how these militaries do or don't create safety standards in their army? Sure they would not tell us about the accidents. 

But we as foreigners are not able to have any chance of influence.... unless Thais would lose their face. 

[Time Traveller]

5 minutes ago, Expatthailover said:

Fair enough too.

If you can afford a holiday you can afford the insurance.

The generosity and kindness of thailand can only stretch so far

That's a dumb statement. It's like what salesmen say. If you can afford buy X, then you can afford to buy Y which is only a little more than X.

Where does it end? For 25 cents more you want Fries with your order? For another 20cents you want to super size the order? You want dessert? 

 

It's not about affording it, it's about wanting it. I suspect your idea is based around this nanny state philosophy where the government is obligated to take care of everyone.

People need to take responsibillity for themselves without governments forcing people to do things, forcing them to buy this, or do that. 

Thailand goes down that route, people will go elsewhere.

 

 

[The Deerhunter]

1 hour ago, ajarnmarc said:

My Thai family has Cigna insurance. My wife claimed I was automatically covered under the family policy, but I failed to be convinced, so I asked why I don't have an insurance card in my own name?

Wife gets on the phone to obtain a card, on a policy that is paid for each month through her credit card, and has been this way for the past four years. 

They ask does your husband have a work permit?

No, he doesn't work.

Again, does you husband have a work permit?

No again, he doesn't work. He's on a Non-O visa.

Insurance company tells my wife we need to check, 

and get back to you about this.

1 week passes, and they finally decide upon her calling them back, 

that the insurance can provide an answer to the original question, 

on how to get an insurance card for a family policy, which has been paid on for the past four years.

Answer: can't cover foreigner, they cost to much in claims.

 

Kasikorn bank accident insurance informed me of the same.

First it was that I needed a work permit, 

just to renew the accident insurance I had for several years, 

which is renewed annually.

Then when I no longer have working status, and therefore don't posses a work permit, 

since I'm now retired, well they claim it's to expensive for foreigner to be covered, 

so not able to sell coverage.

Now I'm on the hunt for medical insurance.

Case in point; even when a foreigner wants insurance, it's hard to obtain easily.

 

I just went through all that.  Many will not cover you if you are over 60 65 even if you had the policy for 20 years, cover stops at 65 with some of the best know ones.  Many others ramp up the premiums at 65 or 70 so it is almost too expensive.   If you are under that age then ask about any policy you take up what age the cover will go to.  My new policy is combined with a life policy but the amount is less than some charge just for health cover but health cover stops at 80!!!!!   The life policy part runs to 85 as long as I continue paying that part of the premium and it includes a pay out when ever I die, (to my wife, not me.) 555

[Rally123]

57 minutes ago, micmichd said:

Tit for tat. Health insurances are mandatory for Thais in Europe. 

Do you have a link to that? Took my missus to the UK a couple of years back. She never had 'Health Insurance'.

 

Quote

You can travel anywhere in the world without travel insurance. ... Without travel insurance you could find yourself out of pocket if something goes wrong - anything from a few quid if you lose your passport, to hundreds of thousands of pounds if you need medical treatment on foreign shores

 

[tonysilly]

I wonder if the diving company had insurance? Do mini vans and taxi drivers have insurance for passengers?  Do club and bar owners,have insurance for their customers? Everyone should get insurance then? 

[Jonmarleesco]

22 hours ago, webfact said:

'... a mandatory requirement for all foreign visitors to Thailand to have travel insurance would help ease the burden on state coffers and boost safety for tourists ...'

Travel insurance would boost safety. Really? And just how would it do that? 

 

And if they seriously think tourists would agree to wearing GPS trackers, they're living in cloud cuckoo land.

[Dene16]

wow. I don't know how many survivors there were but even if it was just given to the dead passengers that would only amount to  approx 1.3 million baht per death.

Probably once all passengers were factored in no more than i million baht per life.

Once again life is cheap in Thailand

It's farcical that they are even entertaining this idea as the loss of income entering Thailand would dwarf this minuscule sum

[thaibry]

It strikes me that the foreign insurer will pay out to the insured but then reclaim the cost by suing the negligent party.

The costs to the Thai negligent parties and their insurers would increase substantially.

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[dave moir]

I think you will find most travel insurance would not cover boat trips hiring motorcycles or jet skis paragliding etc. The company's that run these businesses should be insured for such instances! 

[wcaldwell]

Shameless.  

 

Clearly, this is an attempted money-grab based on the unfortunate deaths of several Chinese tourists.  It does nothing to prevent it from happening again.  Just financially insulating those responsible for ensuring safety standards.

[lincolnshire poacher]

These wonderful ideas are so stupid, it is hardly worth commenting on them Bye bye tourists, we never really wanted you anyway

[Redline]

First, how does having insurance make it safer?  Second, I’m sure the Chinese would like a break from being tracked while on holiday.  Is the gps going to be used to find bodies in the water?

[wcaldwell]

The GPS has nothing to do with safety.  It has everything to do with treating visitors like cattle to be monitored and milked.

 

Besides, if you have a GPS enabled phone, and gave a passport to get a sim, they basically have a GPS on you already.

 

 

[Bluespunk]

3 hours ago, bkk75 said:

They have a point.  There are many tourists and long term stayers that come/live here without any type of insurance. It's insane...

 

If you can't show that you have travel/health insurance then you can be mandated to buy one before immigration let you through.

 

Yes safety standards need to be improved and enforced but this is still a developing country.  Like it or not..it will take a millennial for any improvement to materialize.  

 

 

I don’t think that the subject of a conversation surrounding the deaths of tourists should be based around the cost it imposes upon the Thai state or the negative image it creates.

 

I am nauseated when the focus is on finding excuses or blaming others to deflect the core issue. 

 

It should be sbout how the state is going to close down those operating unsafe businesses.

 

It should be about enforcing safety standards. 

 

It should be about learning the lessons of such tragedies. 

 

It should be about saving lives. 

 

However, it never is. 

 

It is always about the money and protecting the money. 

[Sprigger]

My usual comment. Thick as shit

[WHYWHY]

But even if tourist have insurance does not stop them from seeking compensation from Thailand.

Insurance cover medical not acts of operators not following safety standards.

[peterg40]

Health and Safety here, in your Dreams!!!!!!!!

[jmccarty]

I fully agree, get the tourists to pay for the extra risk so local tourism businesses don't have to pay the price to improve safety conditions.  The GPS tracker, also a great idea around the ankle. It can come with an alarm for when tourists are in places they should not be too. 

[Bastos60]

23 hours ago, MichaelJohn said:

Of course the real solution is to have good safety standards and enforce them; then the Protection Fund wouldn't be called upon.

Having insurance is a little bit like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted?

You don't need to look after the  tourists if they can claim on their own insurance for loss of life and limb.

But of course we all know that any standards that are implemented will fall short and never be implemented or policed.

Enforcing good safety standards isn't that hard at all. 
What seems to be lacking are the insurances for most business. The lower your safety standards, the higher the premium that has to be paid. 
Anyone applying for a license to run a business in the tourist industry needs to provide evidence, yearly, they have the necessary insurances. 

The only thing left to do is to continuously perform checks and provide tourists with the means to report business without the proper insurances.

 

It is a similar good way to get rid of those scamming jetski rentals.

 

[BwindiBoy]

23 hours ago, happy chappie said:

It now seems there 3 levels of importance in Thailand now.1 Thai,2 Chinese,3 westerners.maybe it has something to do with more Chinese coming and the decline of westerners coming to Thailand.

No, no, no, no, no. You are completely missing the point; the ONLY thing that matters to these people is MONEY! No.1. Money, No.2. Money, No.3. Money, ad infinitum.

[Basil B]

39 minutes ago, WHYWHY said:

But even if tourist have insurance does not stop them from seeking compensation from Thailand.

Insurance cover medical not acts of operators not following safety standards.

Very true insurance would be cheaper if insurance companies were to try to recover damages from those responsible.

 

As it seems that Thai businesses do not seem to grasp the idea of insuring themselves and the Thai government and authorities seem not to be doing anything about this then I would think the Thai government should be held liable. 

[hottrader77]

On 7/26/2018 at 3:19 PM, Rally123 said:

Isn't it up to Thailand to protect tourists by implementing better health and safety laws? Talk about cop out.

exactly thailand is blaming tourists for its own failures in making sure tourists are safe stringent checks should be done monthly on boats carrying tourists , it is not done because of police or safety check guys getting bribed , try getting insurance from uk for staying in thailand for 1 year on holiday you will end up paying about 1000 pounds or more , and most insurance companies in uk wont insure you for more that 90 days without going back to england fist 

[ToddinChonburi]

Officials that have purchased there positions and have no idea how to even start to fix the problem.

[The Deerhunter]

1 hour ago, thaibry said:

It strikes me that the foreign insurer will pay out to the insured but then reclaim the cost by suing the negligent party.

The costs to the Thai negligent parties and their insurers would increase substantially.

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From a decision in a Thai court?   Really?    How many of those type of cases have you seen successful lately/ever?   Locals have very constructive ways of delaying stuff like that forever, unless you have mega bucks to throw UNDER the table as hurry-up incentives.  It s a difficult legal and ethical environment for many  overseas companies to learn to play in. 

[The Deerhunter]

1 hour ago, thaibry said:

It strikes me that the foreign insurer will pay out to the insured but then reclaim the cost by suing the negligent party.

The costs to the Thai negligent parties and their insurers would increase substantially.

Sent from my ASUS_X00HD using Tapatalk
 

Just how does an insurance company in Europe, Aussie or USA sue an uninsured adventure operator here?  What are the chances of a successful outcome?   That is why there are so many exclusions, Jet skis, bungee, abseiling, motor bikes - even as a passenger, etc etc.

[BwindiBoy]

15 minutes ago, ToddinChonburi said:

Officials that have purchased there positions and have no idea how to even start to fix the problem.

They can't even identify what the real problem is.