Jump to content

Dual pricing: Retirees and expats may be charged more at Thai govt hospitals


webfact

Recommended Posts

49 minutes ago, Is this real said:

Is anyone surprised by this?

2 and 3 tier pricing is endorsed by the government.  They don't want you here anyway, but, will make more from you until you leave or die.

Thai hospitals are already very over crowded; they don't need extra foreign patients creating even more burden. They rather you take private health insurance and use a private hospital instead. I see this as the ONLY justification for having differential fees.

Personally, I think anyone with a work permit and paying tax here should get the standard Thai rate. Same goes for national parks.

Having said that, I pay only a fraction of what Thais pay as I'm covered under my wife's government medial insurance as she is a civil servant (eg. my CT scan a few weeks ago is well over 10K, but I paid about 2K) for it. Only use a private hospital if it's convenient and need quick care. 

Edited by DavisH
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most foreigners use private hospitals. If you have insurance you're using a private hospital and the insurance company monitors fees and won't allow themselves to be charged ridiculous sums. Most foreigners that use the government hospitals are tourists. If you have a B visa, you have a work permit and pay social security you are eligible for using the social security section in hospitals. Many of the social security clinics are in private hospitals. New reg doesn't really affect many people. Its still up to the hospital. I think it mostly gives a green light to some government hospitals in high tourist areas like Pattaya etc where they see a lot of tourists seeking emergency treatments.  

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Totoandlilly said:

When did Europe become a country? The wages for bus drivers arround Europe varies from country to country, a bus driver in Switzerland or Denmark earm l probably way more then a bus driver in Spain or Romania.

 

europe have  very expensive countries, expensive countries, cheap countries and very cheap.

 

When you are referring to one country please don’t use the globalist term Europe, it’s the same as calling Asia for a country, all countries are different , wages varies from country to country, the Japanese earn way more then the Thais or Chinese.

 

Grow up! He/She never claimed Europe was a country. Oh, and sort your grammar and spelling out please. It hurts my eyes!

Edited by 2long
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, DavisH said:

Thai hospitals are already very over crowded; they don't need extra foreign patients creating even more burden. They rather you take private health insurance and use a private hospital instead. I see this as the ONLY justification for having differential fees.

Personally, I think anyone with a work permit and paying tax here should get the standard Thai rate. Same goes for national parks.

Having said that, I pay only a fraction of what Thais pay as I'm covered under my wife's government medial insurance as she is a civil servant (eg. my CT scan a few weeks ago is well over 10K, but I paid about 2K) for it. Only use a private hospital if it's convenient and need quick care. 

Well then they should kick out all the Burmese and Cambodians who crowd their hospitals. Because it's not farang who are crowding them, it's these laborers. Why don't they use the hospitals back home? I think it's insane that the Thai government is allowing them to pay the same price as Thais while gouging the rest of us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, hansnl said:

Instead of offering a reasonable priced insurance for those who pay taxes in Thailand, spend huge amounts of money here, the government decided to milk even more out of expats.

A good thing to decide if you dont use your brains.

Exports tumbling down, tourism tumbling, and next let us hunt the expats living here away, the ones paying taxes, investing money, and so on.

Vietnam, Birma, Laos, Phillipines, Indonesia, Malaya are standing ready......

Idiots!

 

Burma isn't standing ready for anyone.

 

There's a hotel in the border town of Myawaddy that has a three tier pricing structure. Locals pay one price, Thais and Chinese an intermediate price and foreigners from other countries the highest price. Dual pricing is practiced by nearly all hotels except some 4 and 5 star places.

 

Half the country is off-limits to tourists and expats.

 

It's called Malaysia now not Malaya but I get your point. Thailand is definitely not a welcoming place anymore and this policy shows it. Luckily for me and most other expats, private hospitals are the way to go. Would never step foot in a dirty, third world Thai government hospital. Can't understand westerners who do. I mean, if you have insurance (as you should) why bother? Private hospitals are superior in every way. Of course they're not all equal but there are so many good private hospitals in Thailand you have plenty of choice. Even rich Burmese don't go anywhere near Thai public hospitals!

  • Sad 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, watcharacters said:

 

 

If government hospitals are subsidized by the Thai government,  I wonder why  foreigners are allowed to use them in the first place?

 

Hmm. Well at least expats should be but you're right, the Thai government is shooting itself in the foot allowing all those foreign laborers to use them. They are the ones they're losing money off of by charging them the same as Thais. They should be charging them more. After all, using Thai logic, they had enough money to travel here therefore they can pay more than locals.

 

Besides, Cambodian and Burmese hospitals charge more to Thai patients so the government is definitely shooting itself in the foot here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, Mansell said:

Somewhat amusing your comments, especially as the doctors move backwards and forwards between private and government hospitals many times on the same day. But as long as you are happy to pay the inflated private prices, good for you.

That is exactly right. My ex GF's relative is a doctor. He worked in the Government hospital a few hours a day and a few hours a day in a private hospital. It is normal in Thailand.

I though the government came out with  campaign saying not to dual price the tourists?

Regardless, most expat friendly countries give expats a reduced price when seeing the doctors and give basically the same prices as locals. They know it helps the economy and keeps the expats coming. 

S.E. Asia is not what I would call expat friendly. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Mansell said:

Somewhat amusing your comments, especially as the doctors move backwards and forwards between private and government hospitals many times on the same day. But as long as you are happy to pay the inflated private prices, good for you.

Somewhat amusing your comments considering that the only reason to go to a dirty third world public Thai hospital is if you don't have insurance. And have all the time in the world to wait before being served.

 

With insurance it becomes free so the one who is getting screwed is you, if you choose to go to a government hospital. Besides, I hear some government hospitals don't even treat foreigners. Was mentioned in a FB post I read.

 

And yes, I'm happy to pay whatever the price is at a superior private hospital because generally speaking, they don't employ a discriminatory pricing policy. And they most certainly don't give certain groups of foreigners (like Burmese laborers) a cheaper rate than other expats or tourists.

 

It's the principle of the thing. I voted with my feet and left that horrible burmese hotel because of it's racist pricing policy and went back to my usual hotel, which was not only cheaper and more comfortable, but doesn't employ a three tiered policy. It only charges a modest higher price for ALL foreigners compared to Burmese locals, which, although I don't like it, I can live with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, garyk said:

That is exactly right. My ex GF's relative is a doctor. He worked in the Government hospital a few hours a day and a few hours a day in a private hospital. It is normal in Thailand.

I though the government came out with  campaign saying not to dual price the tourists?

Regardless, most expat friendly countries give expats a reduced price when seeing the doctors and give basically the same prices as locals. They know it helps the economy and keeps the expats coming. 

S.E. Asia is not what I would call expat friendly. 

SE Asia is definitely not expat friendly, except maybe Singapore.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, rumak said:

yes indeed.    article says he was charged 250 baht more per visit than a Thai person.   He then launched a "four year campaign for justice".     Let's all send a big thank you to this Farang for standing up to the injustice.   Now we ALL can pay for his campaign.   Hey, but now its written as the law .   

How i wish Farangs would just keep their mouths shut.  But that is probably like wishing Thais would stop eating somtam.

You are soo right! When his fighting thread was up, and I posted that he was making too much noise, and just should have accepted his compensation from start. Then I got attaced from soo many posters here. Now we see what it leads to. I also hope that all of them are super happy now. Or at least that they understand better next time. Unfortunately that is also a hope i vain. Anyway, thank you for todays best comment.

So, now everybody out there on this forum knows exactly why I am so utterly tired of all the foreigner coming to this country an feel some kind of entitlement. Complaining over rules and regulations, complaining over Thai thinking, values and culture. Complaining over all they can complain about. That´s the real people that should be blacklisted for life.

Edited by Matzzon
  • Like 1
  • Sad 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.





×
×
  • Create New...