Details of mandatory health insurance for Non-Imm O-A visas to be announced next week

[Max69xl 2,763]

12 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

If may of you are like me your in and out a couple of times a year and have to pay whatever fee's are levied at the airport....so once we are forced to buy expat insurance any airport (tourist) insurance tax will be waived, or rebated?  

The tourist insurance you are talking about is just a suggestion,and they mentioned a sum of 20 baht/person and stay.

[ThaiBunny 3,539]

Tomorrow's the day?

[mike787 3,482]

Get ready for the belt tightening, Land of smiles not so warm smiley friendly, those days of cheap easy going existence are over for good.

[dick dasterdly 11,841]

On 8/19/2019 at 8:55 PM, mommysboy said:

'

but it should be possible for expats to be able to pay a reasonable annual premium to obtain treatment in govt. hospitals.'

 

How much though?  Expats tend to be in the age group that gets increasingly more expensive.  I'd say it would need to be 50,000 per year at a guess.

Good point, but the cost should initially be based on the costs incurred at govt. hospitals by expats on retirement extensions - and I doubt this would amount to 50,000 bht p.a. when divided by all expats. on retirement extensions.

 

The vast majority prefer to 'pay their own way' in private hospitals at the moment (even though we know that govt. hospitals are far cheaper), and there is no reason why this would not continue - particularly if there was an excess of around 100,000 bht?

 

 

[mommysboy 4,498]

On 8/20/2019 at 7:12 AM, tropo said:

Or if you didn't have a card on you. Some people don't plan everything before they end up in hospital sick or injured.

 

I'm sure they wouldn't have dragged you to a prison cell to wait for payment or put you back in a hospital ward and increase your bill. There is nothing they could have done. They were strong-arming you and it worked. That's no way to treat someone who has just been in hospital. Obviously Thailand's "over 1 billion baht" 3-year unpaid medical bills suggests they just end up losing it if they cannot collect payment.

 

They should stop crying about this and realise it's the cost of doing (tourism) business. It's a drop in the ocean compared to their profits from the industry. Any major efforts will just cause a drop in tourism. Tourists and expats have choices and won't bother with Thailand if the requirements become too expensive or complicated. I'm sure the people (politicians) crying about this problem aren't short of a penny because of it. 

 

Tourism is a big industry in Thailand, and I agree that losses incurred by rogue health bills are largely insignificant.  As with many things, Thailand is generating adverse publicity needlessly, and for no apparent gain.  Perhaps it ought to consider the health benefits also enjoyed by its citizens working and sometimes just visiting countries like the UK, Australia, etc.  It just appears to me that Thailand doesn't want to know about two way relationships- tight basically!

[lkv 3,868]

It's Thursday already, come on.

 

I'm dying to find out the details, they said this week?

 

[ThaiBunny 3,539]

9 hours ago, mommysboy said:

Perhaps it ought to consider the health benefits also enjoyed by its citizens working and sometimes just visiting countries like the UK, Australia, etc.

Are you able to expand on this?

[metisdead 8,859]

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[mommysboy 4,498]

3 hours ago, ThaiBunny said:

Are you able to expand on this?

Sure, where UK is concerned anyway:

 

Thais (and all nationalities) receive free emergency treatment at all hospitals.  

 

Elective surgery is not free, but there again there isn't the regime of marching a sick person off to an ATM, and enforcement is difficult in practice.

 

Some visa types include comprehensive coverage at a very reasonable price.

 

I would be surprised if Australia is much different, but would be interested to know.

[Angry Dragon 180]

On 8/18/2019 at 9:26 AM, Vacuum said:

Yes, but many expats can't get an insurance because of their age.

in which case you need to have sufficient funds to cover hospital expenses.  if you don't have those, then hospitals should simply deny entry.

 

forget the requirement for insurance, simply require all potential patients to show sufficient funds or insurance before being admitted.  if they can't show this, then no admissions.  put the responsibility on the expats, not on the hospitals by making them accept just anyone who walks in or on the government by forcing it to devise some unwieldy policy unpopular to everyone.

[ThaiBunny 3,539]

5 minutes ago, Angry Dragon said:

... simply require all potential patients to show sufficient funds or insurance before being admitted.

OK, knocked off a motorcycle, arrive at nearest hospital unconscious. What do you suggest happens next?

[Melbun 336]

20 minutes ago, Angry Dragon said:

in which case you need to have sufficient funds to cover hospital expenses.  if you don't have those, then hospitals should simply deny entry.

 

forget the requirement for insurance, simply require all potential patients to show sufficient funds or insurance before being admitted.  if they can't show this, then no admissions.  put the responsibility on the expats, not on the hospitals by making them accept just anyone who walks in or on the government by forcing it to devise some unwieldy policy unpopular to everyone.

No, that would be completely amoral. It would be like saying show me your money or go somewhere else. Certainly The mandate of any hospital is to treat the sick. Settlement comes later. But the Thai's want to circumvent that  by insisting on health insurance for all long term residents. I would also be in favour of mandatory travel insurance at immigration on arrival.

[highonthai 163]

39 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said:

OK, knocked off a motorcycle, arrive at nearest hospital unconscious. What do you suggest happens next?

Therein lies the problem. With many of the foreign tourists that take a header and need assistance while here, the hospital will give life or death emergency service. And until you can prove that you can pay it goes no farther, and you will be transferred to a government facility. In the last few years I've had several acquaintances and one friend that had no money to pay their bills. In the case of the friend that crashed his motorcycle, his family in the UK didn't even have the money to fly over to help their father. His daughter in the UK started a go fund me page which made us (some of his friends) angry. We passed around the hat and helped out. He was not in a financial position to take care of his hospital bills. He is still bed ridden with major head trauma. 

Should a THAI hospital or THAI government pay for his financial irresponsibility?   I don't think so...

 

I'm for some sort of Mandatory or proof of insurance tourist or Expat. And I don't think that there is a good argument against that.

Edited August 22, 2019 by highonthai

[MRToMRT 1,775]

Like many others I am definitely not against the need for insurance, for long term expatriates in Thailand. Although, I am against how this "requirement" has been "planned" thus far. Its full of holes and does seem to meet any meaningful criteria in the meaningful reduction of Thailand's expenses on uninsured individuals (migrant workers, tourists, long stayers, etc, etc).

 

Doe the Administration really want to reduce the country's financial exposure or is the plan just to bleed long stayers financially for certain Thai business' gain.

[ThaiBunny 3,539]

28 minutes ago, highonthai said:

I'm for some sort of Mandatory or proof of insurance tourist or Expat.

How do you propose those tourists who have a tie-in between their Platinum credit card and travel insurance "prove" they have insurance? It's automatically triggered the moment they charge some or all of their trip to the card (depends on the conditions in the policy) - there's no certificate to say they're insured. As well, many policies deny cover for motorcycle accidents and other "dangerous" pursuits. AFAIK the Thai BUPA policy only covers 50% of any motorcycle accident costs

Edited August 22, 2019 by ThaiBunny