Must Read British Embassy Bangkok warns of the importance of having medical insurance

[Somtamnication]

For once, the embassy is correct.

[coppywriter]

6 minutes ago, Happy enough said:

you don't need insurance to go into a hospital. you just pay. i have a retiree mate here and he has some health issues and uses government hospitals all the time and said they are fine and cheap enough. in fact he praises them

You are missing my point which is, what if getting into the Kingdom relies on having med insurance....... Some of us retirees have no cover now because we have reached the upper age limit

[Morakot]

2 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

Yes, I was asked to provide proof of Council Tax payment and a utility bill. 

 

I guess that GP surgery wasn't looking to take on new patients.

 

I had a similar experience. I wanted to register with a popular surgery in a convenient spot in the city centre in Manchester. They asked for a recent utility bill and ID. As my utility bill was two weeks past their defined point of "recentness", they refused point blank to register me.

[simoh1490]

For those that are interested, here are the government advice documents to Trusts on this subject, including the Ordinarily Resident tool:

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-overseas-visitors-hospital-charging-regulations

 

I read a few weeks ago that the program initiated by Hunt to verify the residency status of patients had been a total flop, it was implemented in about 18 Trusts and the sum total of patients found to be health tourists was less than 20 hence the savings were nonm-existent.

[anon789561]

Just now, coppywriter said:

You are missing my point which is, what if getting into the Kingdom relies on having med insurance....... Some of us retirees have no cover now because we have reached the upper age limit

that will never happen so don't worry about it

[coppywriter]

1 minute ago, Happy enough said:

that will never happen so don't worry about it

Some Thai I.O won't see it that way. No insurance, no entry to Thailand........

 

[anon789561]

2 minutes ago, coppywriter said:

Some Thai I.O won't see it that way. No insurance, no entry to Thailand........

 

there's no law that says you need insurance to enter. sure they spoke about it but you may have noticed they speak about alot of shit that's impossible to implement and will never happen so if i were you i wouldn;t worry about it

[coppywriter]

2 minutes ago, Happy enough said:

there's no law that says you need insurance to enter. sure they spoke about it but you may have noticed they speak about alot of shit that's impossible to implement and will never happen so if i were you i wouldn;t worry about it

I agree with you and I don't worry about it, I was just being the :devils advocate"

[kinyara]

I don't think the British Embassy needs to warn any long term British expats about anything, we realised years ago we were on our own, typically patronising really.  Sad that they've become an overseas profit centre and don't recognise their citizens now living abroad contributed to the country for many years at home without being a burden on the state and perhaps deserve a little better service/representation than we seem to get in Thailand. I think we all know why the NHS back home is struggling and it's not due to a few thousand British passport holding returning expats. How can a country get the moral equation so back to front on so many economic/social issues. 

[simoh1490]

I have read that there is a social services office in T3 at Heathrow which was set up to assist returning expats who have medical problems and are homeless, I know nothing more about this other than I have heard from several sources that it does exist.

 

Being homeless in itself is not a barrier to being eligible for NHS care, as the documents I posted earlier points out. Having a settled residence (or not) is one of several factors any investigation into a patients status would include, the problem is, if you can't end the investigation quickly with a few easy answers, the chances are they will dig deeper. I strongly recommend posters interested in this subject to read the documents I posted because they go along way towards understanding what they are looking for and the thinking behind an investigation, the "notes to investigators" is particularly illuminating in this respect.

[overherebc]

27 minutes ago, hobobo said:

The advice to British tourists and expats to register with the Embassy ended some 5 years ago when the Embassy had stopped the register. Anyone who asked about this service since then was advised to follow the relevant news, notices and changes on their website.

The best thing, for them, on that idea is if it goes wrong for 'you' then their get out clause is 'you' misunderstood the information. 'You' don't have a name or face to point the finger at.

 

[alphason]

I agree we should have insurance, but with the exclusion and costs I understand why many don't have it. 

 

Would be good for the embassy to lobby Thailand to allow those here on long term visas a way to pay into social security without having to be employed.

[anon789561]

3 minutes ago, alphason said:

I agree we should have insurance, but with the exclusion and costs I understand why many don't have it. 

 

Would be good for the embassy to lobby Thailand to allow those here on long term visas a way to pay into social security without having to be employed.

the embassy are too busy attending free lunches and dinners trying to drum up business to give a shit about what their citizens are doing or how their citizens are doing

[baboon]

Well at least they aren't charging us £80 apiece for this advice. Mind you, that's probably only because they don't know where we are...

[simoh1490]

9 minutes ago, alphason said:

I agree we should have insurance, but with the exclusion and costs I understand why many don't have it. 

 

Would be good for the embassy to lobby Thailand to allow those here on long term visas a way to pay into social security without having to be employed.

It would be a good idea if only there was a reciprocal social security agreement between the two countries but there isn't, the PI and the UK have such an agreement in place hence British expats resident in the PI are eligible for increases in the state pension each year.

[Tuvoc]

PI ?

[alphason]

7 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

It would be a good idea if only there was a reciprocal social security agreement between the two countries but there isn't, the PI and the UK have such an agreement in place hence British expats resident in the PI are eligible for increases in the state pension each year.

Isn't the NHS surcharge 400GBP per year I think, Everyone would be happy to have that kind of deal here.

[simoh1490]

2 minutes ago, alphason said:

Isn't the NHS surcharge 400GBP per year I think, Everyone would be happy to have that kind of deal here.

Immigrants who are on settlement visa's pay around 400 Pounds per year for NHS access, whether that is a surcharge or insurance is unclear. But I do know that product, whatever it is, is not available to UK expats which I find galling.

 

Poster Tuvoc - PI = Philippine Islands

[Tuvoc]

It is in the process of being doubled from £200 to £400, if it hasn't happened already.

 

are you saying health insurance for an oldie in Thailand is more than £400 ?

[simoh1490]

2 minutes ago, Tuvoc said:

It is in the process of being doubled from £200 to £400, if it hasn't happened already.

 

are you saying health insurance for an oldie in Thailand is more than £400 ?

I'm 69 years old, the last quote I got for medical insurance in Thailand looked like this:

 

THB 18k per month, 1 300k deductible, AND co-pay on the next few hundred thousand PLUS a whole list of things not covered. I'm not that I'm unduly unwell or have had excessive medical treatment, the problem is that everytime you rock into the local hospital because of this or the other, those visits are all considered to be investigations into some body part or other, over sixteen years those things add up.

[Tuvoc]

5 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

I'm 69 years old, the last quote I got for medical insurance in Thailand looked like this:

 

THB 18k per month, 1 300k deductible, AND co-pay on the next few hundred thousand PLUS a whole list of things not covered. I'm not that I'm unduly unwell or have had excessive medical treatment, the problem is that everytime you rock into the local hospital because of this or the other, those visits are all considered to be investigations into some body part or other, over sixteen years those things add up.

 

Christ !!  No other option but to just have some money in the bank, hope for the best, and use government hospitals if you have to. 

 

[Ron19]

Troll post removed.

[brian2f2f]

I was looking at a health plan from a bank last time i was here. It was like 1500 month for it and fully pays all hospital charges. Dose anyone know about that? For. Those who want it could be worth while to get and guessong be cheaper too. Ill probably get it myself if can find it or any other worth while cheap insurance just as back up. Since i rarely go to the dr and as cheap as it is here. I have no problems being able to afford the cost. As to why people that are older especially retired come and live here then dont have any kind of insurance is beyond me. 

[topt]

32 minutes ago, Tuvoc said:

 

Christ !!  No other option but to just have some money in the bank, hope for the best, and use government hospitals if you have to. 

 

Travel Insurance, or long stay travel insurance for longer trips, is significantly cheaper than "Health Insurance" to which I think simo1490 refers. 

 

However at 69 it would still be expensive for 6 months and you still have the issues of any pre-existing conditions. 

[dave moir]

3 hours ago, ferguston said:

Typical.

The British Embassy notice only applies to England.

Yes that's why it's called the British Embassy!!!! 

[topt]

4 minutes ago, brian2f2f said:

It was like 1500 month for it

Baht, Euro, GBP?

Any age quoted? If not and from a Thai Bank it sounds like an expensive Personal Accident Insurance which will have a relatively low limit - but unlikely to be Health Insurance.

 

9 minutes ago, brian2f2f said:

As to why people that are older especially retired come and live here then dont have any kind of insurance is beyond me. 

I think @simoh1490 adequately explained that. 

 

@Tuvoc I would suggest looking at some of the older threads in the Insurance sub forum if you want to "appreciate" the issues surrounding this 

[Tuvoc]

3 minutes ago, topt said:

 

@Tuvoc I would suggest looking at some of the older threads in the Insurance sub forum if you want to "appreciate" the issues surrounding this 

 

I will do that, thanks.

[Bangkok Barry]

 

Interesting thread. And for once it's not full of pointless and idiotic comments. I personally wasn't aware of being able to declare one is resident in the UK even if one isn't. I am a UK citizen with somewhere to stay and with a sister there, and even use her address for Visa card correspondence. So that's all good.

Local care in Thailand is a lottery, even with a private hospital. If I had a serious problem I'd return home, if only temporarily. Have a read of my experience:
http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/ReadersSubmissions2011/reader6954.htm

[Esso49]

12 minutes ago, dave moir said:

Yes that's why it's called the British Embassy!!!! 

Oh dear hope you are not British !   This was your answer in reply to Fergustan's post that it only applied to England. 

 

 You are correct insofaras it is called the British Embassy but don't you know Great Britain is England Scotland and Wales.  It is not called the English Embassy for that very good reason.  And before you ask our UK passports are for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of which the British Embassy is representative. 

[Krataiboy]

For the UK to treat citizens who retired to Thailand as "overseas visitors" and charge 150 percent of the cost medical treatment is a shoddy reward for a lifetime of contributing to the British economy.

 

In my own case, which I suspect is not untypical, I worked and paid my taxes for 45 years before retiring to Thailand to be with my Thai wife and child. Just before I left, I received an unexpected refund on my National Insurance contributions, which I had apparently overpaid!

 

Neither I, nor my family, have taken as much as a pence-worth of care from the NHS since I arrived here 20 years ago, a considerable saving for the old country.  In retirement I have continued to contribute to the UK economy via tax on my company and state pensions - the latter, of course, frozen at the amount paid when I was 65. Fifteen years on, you can imagine how much it is worth today!

 

We retirees have got used to tightening our belts as the fortunes of the East have risen and those of the West have declined.

 

Factors beyond anybody's control, such as the falling value of sterling, poor returns on bank and other low-risk investments, have hit particulary hard. Many of us in LOS, as the shocking statistics in the ThaiVisa article make clear, have no private medical insurance because we are too old to qualify or the premiums have become unaffordable.

 

If, as is being constantly suggested in the media, the Thai government were to insist on insurance cover as a condition for residency,  many of us would be in an invidious position. For a considerable number repatriation might be the only option - assuming they were able to meet stringent UK income criteria. I, for one, could not. My annual pension income would meet the financial criteria for re-settling myself, but not my wife and daughter.

 

What are those of us who may one day facd with this nightmarish Catch 22 situation supposed to do - hop on a passing refugee boat in the  hope of being treated at least as generously as hordes of other migrants flooding into Britain from non-EU countries?

 

Surely, a better - not to say fairer - solution would be to reinstate the rights to free NHS treatment for all British retirees living in countries which, like Thailand, lack reciprocal healthcare schemes. At the very least, the 150 percent charge should be waived in favour of fees based on the individual's past NI/tax contributions.