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Compulsory insurance shelved: Ministry don't t want to spook tourists at sensitive time

webfact

By webfact
in Thailand News

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Mace648 Newbie

Mace648

Posted
Posted

I travel to Thailand quite frequently and always purchase travel insurance since Ivan well aware of the accident possibilities in Thailand. I had been considering a permanent move to Thailand since my wife is Thai but when I heard of the upcoming requirement to have health insurance I looked into it and the price was so exorbitant that living in Thailand would be far more expensive than living in the USA. I am 70 years old so I realize that my insurance costs will be higher than those for a younger person but  researching a policy for Thai health insurance I found that the cheapest policy I could find was nearly $2000USD per month and coverage was very minimal.  At a cost of 24K USD a year just for insurance I quickly changed my plans

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Sujo Ruby Member

Sujo

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Max69xl said:

When about 38% of the tourists from the UK admits they have no insurance what so ever,then you might have a clue why the Thai government came up with the idea. And there are of course many tourists from other countries without insurance.

Seems those liking compulsory insurance from the US like the idea of socialism.

 

is insurance compulsory in any country?

 

 

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CygnusX1 Silver Member

CygnusX1

Posted
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8 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Depends on what you mean by "accidental coverage."

 

I think the accident coverage that most U.S. credit cards have is limited to death or injury that occurs while being transported by a "common carrier" like airline, train, boat, etc. and then only when the tickets were purchased with that credit card. And then, often only limited to payments specifically for death or loss of limbs, eyes, etc.

 

However, those same credit cards typically would NOT cover the kinds of general hospital medical expenses that probably most often occur with tourist injuries here -- riding on rented motorcycles, or various kinds of other activities that don't involve travel on ticketed "common carriers."

I don’t know about US credit cards, but the complimentary travel insurance on my Australian card is no different to travel insurance that you pay for, and you only have to purchase a minimum of $250 of your travel costs with the card. It has unlimited coverage for medical, certainly not only applying to accidents while in transport. Same exclusions as any other paid for travel insurance policy involving use of motorbikes, other dangerous activities, etc. Even covers stuff such as rental vehicle insurance excess. Don’t know how the banks/credit card companies can afford to be so generous. It would be a complete waste of money for me to purchase a second lot of travel insurance.

Just like any travel insurance, medical treatment is for emergency care until you can be repatriated back home, of course. You can’t use it to get a free knee replacement or dental implant. You must be a resident of Australia, and it’s limited to trips of less than 6 months, age exclusions also.

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zaZa9 Silver Member

zaZa9

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, TSF said:

Beat me why that damn chain of hospitals named after a Capital don't get investigated for fraud by foreign insurance companies. Padding up foreigner's bills with absurdly high fees is just out and out fraud, and the time is long overdue for the bast*rds get called out.

It gets richer ...

He apparently got an "ok" from the card company insurer once he was with-it after 4 days ,   and then learned his bill was 360k ( some extra charges )  , so at that point learned he had been billed 80k a day   ...and  then found  out that his card had been billed 100k . He said he was grateful that he was better  ( still feeble ) , that wasnt an issue , and   asked for that to be returned to his account and he would see that his bill was made good but he wasnt spending another 80k sitting in a ( very nice ) room  ,  but was refused on the grounds that the hospital in question hadnt actually received the money from the card company. So he had to stay.

He asked if he had to stay at 80k a day and they said they could discount that but he HAD to stay until the bill was paid !

If not , they would call the police.

He said they should call the police ....

No police arrived.

But 2 large hospital staff arrived and told him he wasnt leaving.

After a couple of hours  he called friends who escorted him out after a heated argument , and had to literaly push through the 'staff' who blocked their way and threatened his Thai friend  helping him with legal action.

Hes back home now , watching email after email of accusations from the Insurer and threats of legal action by the hospital , and  threats on him as well !

 

Greed is this hospitals mantra - yet I have friends who are almost boastful of what their minor treatments there cost their Insurance Companies ( so every contributer ).

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SunsetT Gold Member

SunsetT

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Posted
11 hours ago, monkfish said:

So they recognised it's a bad idea that's good but their reasoning for shelving it isn't so good.
But will they reintroduce it once tourism picks up again?
 

No...They just introduced triple pricing for medical treatment instead!

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Arkady Ruby Member

Arkady

Posted
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12 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

So is this article talking about the proposed insurance requirement for regular tourists, or the separate proposal to require health insurance for O-A visa applicants, or both?

 

 

It is unclear but logically it is just short term regular tourism that that is "sensitive" at this time.  However, hopefully they will throw the whole idea into the too hard basket.  Probably the numbers of O-A applicants are too small for them to care that much, relative to regular tourists, and they may have realised they have to work out a lot more detail and make the insurance available.  

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Chelseafan Gold Member

Chelseafan

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Sujo said:

Seems those liking compulsory insurance from the US like the idea of socialism.

 

is insurance compulsory in any country?

 

 

Let's not get mixed up with insurance for tourism (additional 100 baht) and insurance for ex-pats (skyhigh)

The former makes sense

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Melbun Senior Member

Melbun

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, monkfish said:

So they recognised it's a bad idea that's good but their reasoning for shelving it isn't so good.
But will they reintroduce it once tourism picks up again?
 

You can count on it. Like a quick rabbit killer to the neck. It would be a big money spinner in the coffers of government. With very few tourist needing to use the insurance. If they are real clever they could impose a levy before the tourist can use the insurance.

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MaxYakov Platinum Member

MaxYakov

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, atyclb said:

looking at photos posted of a thai disgraceful beach one might need to buy medical insurance for a trip to the beach. lots of infectious diseases and infections to be had not to mentions cuts

 

 

thai beach.jpg

Insurance for the "trip" or for getting anywhere near it on foot? I'll stay at 30x (optical) camera range, thank you very much.

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Melbun Senior Member

Melbun

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, DrTuner said:

Same as me. However Bupa stopped selling the accident insurance after Aetna bought them so newbies can't get it, apparently too good a deal. I'm happy I'm still grandfathered, 100k cover for 3.7k/y, enough to cover the time I might not be able to get to the ATM or flash my debit card. Otherwise I just pay cash, funny how Bangkok hospital skips the useless tests when they see you're not insured.  The compulsory insurance would've been utterly useless.

16 hours ago, overherebc said:

I'm 50/50 on this.

I have insurance for here ( accident ) but even if we travel to other countries we always buy some kind of insurance.

I really don't understand those that come here from UK USA for example, on holiday who don't buy any insurance in any way.

Or buy it and don't read it re' falling off a rented bike etc when they don't even have a bike licence at home. Been a few stories on that on TV.

 

One word explains these people that travel without insurance.............. DUMB

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tgw Platinum Member

tgw

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, Destiny1990 said:

Yup especially for tourists a non mandatory personal  accident insurance buyable up on arrival  by the week/ month such option would be very welcome and wont spook any foreigner.

high risk of getting abused.

they should make a plan only covering emergency medical care including a medical evacuation to the home country if necessary.

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Melbun Senior Member

Melbun

Posted
Posted
40 minutes ago, reargunnerph3 said:

Why doesn't the Thai government introduced a inexpensive health insurance scheme for foreigners? Could be a good earner.

OMG this has been discussed ad nauseum. Most likely older people would use it, subsequently putting a big strain on the hospital/medical system in Thailand. Also, it would set an undesirable precedent - in that foreigners with a whole raft of health issues, would be able to come to retire in Thailand, without penalty, and use/abuse the health system. Common sense mate.

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Chelseafan Gold Member

Chelseafan

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, Melbun said:

You can count on it. Like a quick rabbit killer to the neck. It would be a big money spinner in the coffers of government. With very few tourist needing to use the insurance. If they are real clever they could impose a levy before the tourist can use the insurance.

Why would anyone WANT to use their insurance.

 

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Chelseafan Gold Member

Chelseafan

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Posted
19 hours ago, 0815 said:

Use the long queues at the immigration checkpoints for a further question.
Do you have a travel insurance ?
YES - Note the home country
NO - Note the home country
Check your lists and start thinking ...

Just get the airlines to add it to the price of the ticket...same as they do with the departure tax.

Quite simple really.

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Max69xl Gold Member

Max69xl

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Posted

FYI:

Every invited Thai person visiting an EU-country are required to have a travel insurance. That requirement went into effect many years ago. It has to be valid the entire period and there's a minimum limit of coverage. 

So why should "poor" westerners visit Thailand without a travel insurance,and then complain about it at TVF? 

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