SURVEY; Health Insurance for long stayers -- needed or not?

[Scott]

As many of our readers know, the Thai government is planning on requiring proof of health insurance for visitors to the Kingdom who plan for an an extended stay.   In your opinion, do you believe this is a feasible plan?  

 

Please feel free to leave a comment.

 

For further reading:

 

 

[RBOP]

This is another money grabbing scheme targetting long stay foreigners much like the TM30 money grab. Having health insurance is wise but we should also have the option to self insure. 

[Thailand]

Will the results of the poll be sent to the government for them to reconsider the proposals?

[Antonymous]

The requirement for OPD cover for long stayers is a travesty and most definitely a money grab.

 

Mandatory travel insurance for all short stay visitors (tourists) obtained from their own county would be very sensible for all concerned and the Thai Govt/Thai insurance could not be accused of a money grab in that case.

[OneMoreFarang]

Maybe we should compare this to what Thais need if they want to visit other parts of the world, i.e. Europe... 

[Dogbarker]

This survey is flawed.The webfact source is not the actual police notice on the subject for  long stayers and that should be used as the correct source only . Mandatory Long stayers insurance applies to o-a not type o visa who have to demonstrate they can self support with funds in or arriving into Thailand according to the latest order ( and ubonjoe ).There are important differences between types of long stayers. For o-a mandatory -yes there are good reason for implementation.. Maybe not just from those insurance companies signed up for it  but others too.

For o type visa it should be optional ... Due to funding requisites for that visa type etc....for short stay there should be proof of adequate insurance at time of entry .( rather than crowd funding).

A  survey such as this leads to the inevitable speculation on the government implementing for everyone rather than documented  fact by the latest regulations.

[gillap]

If the truth lies in the number the Thai government has put forth for their cost of having to pay 500 million bahts per year to hospitals due expats not paying their bill it's a SERIOUS matter! If this is really the case...We have become undesirable tourists! The writing is on the wall sort of speak... it's a warning to all expats who don't have insurance and are due for visa renewals...full implementation maybe not this year but one has to think next year it will be fully implemated!

[madmen]

How many different ways can the same question be asked lol

 

There are already a dozen thread's running right now

[GalaxyMan]

2 hours ago, RBOP said:

Having health insurance is wise but we should also have the option to self insure. 

Exactly. This needs to be a choice in the survey. One way or another, long-stay foreigners should have the ability to take care of themselves.

 

They talk about 400,000/40,000, I believe. Why not offer the option to put 500,000 into an account, much like we have to do now for the retirement or marriage extensions?

[JusticeGB]

I have a UK postal address and am able to have $50,000 of insurance for $150 a month. This is adequate for Thailand. At 72 local companies are quoting over 75,000 a month and exclude preexisting conditions!

[DUNROAMIN]

Another BS spin from Thailand government. Long tern Expats living here are not the problem it is the short term tourist with no travel insurance. The government is just trying prop up its hospital budgets by stinging "farangs". We already pay three times as much for hospital and surgery fees than Thais. You will now see Hospitals charging even more if we are made to have health insurance, which will increase your premiums every year. Start making Thais pay their way to help with hospital budgets.

[DUNROAMIN]

1 hour ago, Thailand said:

Will the results of the poll be sent to the government for them to reconsider the proposals?

Surely you jest!

[Crossy]

Only a fool would remain in Thailand without some form of health planning. It can (and too often does) happen to you!

 

IMHO The government should :-

• Allow suitable health insurance from a globally recognised company.
• Provide access to sensibly priced local insurance (in-patient only).
• Permit those who have paid into the social scheme to continue paying (this is already in place but it's unclear whether this would meet the requirements).
• Allow self-insurance, limits will need to be set, allow the use of the 400/800k needed for extensions (without draw-down).

AND

 

This should apply to ALL foreigners including tourists (travel insurance mandatory for tourists).

 

 

[emptypockets]

21 minutes ago, JusticeGB said:

I have a UK postal address and am able to have $50,000 of insurance for $150 a month. This is adequate for Thailand. At 72 local companies are quoting over 75,000 a month and exclude preexisting conditions!

The Thai Government will decide what is adequate, not you.

[Jaxxper]

2 hours ago, RBOP said:

This is another money grabbing scheme targetting long stay foreigners much like the TM30 money grab. Having health insurance is wise but we should also have the option to self insure. 

Not sure why you think the TM30 is a money grab. If you comply with the requirements there is no cost associated with it. Do you get charged to lodge a TM 30 ? Just interested.

[jvs]

13 minutes ago, Crossy said:

This should apply to ALL foreigners including tourists (travel insurance mandatory for tourists).

A lot of tourists already have travel insurance but then you have the small lettering at the bottom.

Just charge every arrival into Thailand 50 baht and ad it into the ticket if the fly in.

Good money maker that way.

[Don Mega]

1 minute ago, jvs said:

A lot of tourists already have travel insurance but then you have the small lettering at the bottom.

Just charge every arrival into Thailand 50 baht and ad it into the ticket if the fly in.

Good money maker that way.

I'd prefer not to fund other peoples lack of insurance.

[isaanistical]

I am not on an O-A so hopefully not affected yet. But I do have insurance.

If you reserve the right to self-insure, the medical trade must also have the right to turf you out of its hospitals if you run out of funds. In principle, requiring aliens to be responsible for their treatment is only sensible and I have been shocked at the number of correspondents here who believe it should not apply to them, or get offended at the thought of having to pay if they get hurt.

I pay an eye-watering premium (because I'm old. And fyi, insurers will cover 70+ customers, but not as new risks) but I recently required serious surgery and could not have found the half-million baht it cost. (The flip-side of that was that it still cost me 80,000 baht for the 'extras'. Well, that's insurance for you….)

International policies should be accepted. Of course officials will need the proof in Thai. If Thais must have insurance in UK (as a number of posters have demanded), you would hardly expect a Heathrow IO to read the proof in Thai, would you? That's one area where it gets a bit complicated – although a certified translation of a foreign policy should be acceptable, but how do you get one in advance?

Likewise, the amount of coverage is tricky: I've seen 5 million baht quoted. But my really quite good policy (coincidentally from one of the insurers on the 'list') has no ceiling – just a maximum per disability of 500,000. So would my policy be acceptable? Also, I don't have outpatient cover – by definition, if it's trivial it won't be unaffordable and if it's serious it won't be an outpatient matter. So I would likely be refused a visa (and at my age, adding outpatient cover to my existing policy would cost a huge amount for a nugatory benefit).

The nitty-gritty is a real pain, but the concept of having foreigners prove they can look after themselves is sound enough.

[gearbox]

I voted "No" but would have voted "Yes" if any of the visa offered for long stay resembles the Malaysian MM2F. The current O-A visas and retirement extensions are just tourist visas with longer period of stay. The holders have no more rights or privileges than anyone arriving on 30 days exempt entry, so travel insurance could be used for these visas too.

[digger70]

13 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Only a fool would remain in Thailand without some form of health planning. It can (and too often does) happen to you!

 

IMHO The government should :-

• Allow suitable health insurance from a globally recognised company.
• Provide access to sensibly priced local insurance (in-patient only).
• Permit those who have paid into the social scheme to continue paying (this is already in place but it's unclear whether this would meet the requirements).
• Allow self-insurance, limits will need to be set, allow the use of the 400/800k needed for extensions (without draw-down).

AND

 

This should apply to ALL foreigners including tourists (travel insurance mandatory for tourists).

 

 

Why doesn't  the Thai government  make an insurance available for the amount that's required that's for a reasonable premium so that Everyone can insure no matter age,race,coloror Visa/extension .Then the people wouldn't get Ripped off by the Greedy Insurance companies .Make that every tourist must have an travel insurance from  their country before they intend to travel to Thailand .???? 

[worgeordie]

I thought the 800,000 Thb, parked in a Thai Bank ?,

was to cover that,so they knew you had money to

pay for hospital bills.

Now I am thinking some people in authority have

shares in insurance companies,or at the very least

are been lobbied by them.

regards worgeordie

 

[rwill]

It's certainly risky not to have health insurance.  I don't currently but plan on getting it.  But I do have about 5,000,000 baht in the bank for emergencies.

[cougar52]

1 hour ago, GalaxyMan said:

Exactly. This needs to be a choice in the survey. One way or another, long-stay foreigners should have the ability to take care of themselves.

 

They talk about 400,000/40,000, I believe. Why not offer the option to put 500,000 into an account, much like we have to do now for the retirement or marriage extensions?

Exactly, in the first mention of this. it was mentioned the availability of some sort of self insurance. It was mentioned that even with if the 400000 being held from the Retirement Extension would be enough to cover the insurance requirement. So what happened to that option?

 

[holy cow cm]

44 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Only a fool would remain in Thailand without some form of health planning. It can (and too often does) happen to you!

 

IMHO The government should :-

• Allow suitable health insurance from a globally recognised company.
• Provide access to sensibly priced local insurance (in-patient only).
• Permit those who have paid into the social scheme to continue paying (this is already in place but it's unclear whether this would meet the requirements).
• Allow self-insurance, limits will need to be set, allow the use of the 400/800k needed for extensions (without draw-down).

AND

 

This should apply to ALL foreigners including tourists (travel insurance mandatory for tourists).

 

 

I plainly believe that the renewals process should charge an additional health fee of 10,000 baht to cover all expats for all in patient and for outpatient it would cover 2000 baht and the rest is a deductible, but the terms for outpatient covering must be deciphered to be legit and not going for a hangnail or physical or consultation that the doctor tells you that you have the flu....

 

Just say from marriage/family to retiree at 100,000 expats that is a healthy total lump sum of 1,000,000,000 baht that would easily cover everything with existing conditions as expats do not run to the hospital every day-week-month-year. I would bet on average it is probably every 2- 5 years. Tourists coming on tourist visas would pay in the visa fee, and tourists coming on 30 day exempt would pay a fee at the immigration desk in order to be stamped in.

[The Fugitive]

'Self-insurance' doesn't guarantee that the patient will pay for their treatment. Even in a Government hospital, complicated surgery and/or long term treatment will eventually use up savings. We need to be allowed to join Government hospital scheme at realistic rates. Actual cost, not subsidised 30 baht scheme of course. Thai hospitals know how much each age group costs their Government. Our rates should be based upon that.

[Thingamabob]

1 hour ago, DUNROAMIN said:

Surely you jest!

Ridiculous question. 

[NoshowJones]

1 hour ago, emptypockets said:

The Thai Government will decide what is adequate, not you.

Unfortunately.

[NoshowJones]

1 hour ago, Jaxxper said:

Not sure why you think the TM30 is a money grab. If you comply with the requirements there is no cost associated with it. Do you get charged to lodge a TM 30 ? Just interested.

I had a round trip of about 120 Ks to report on behalf of my wife when I arrived back in the country at my local IO, what about the cost of travel and the inconvenience? Maybe not too expensive, but you are wrong to say that there is no cost associated with it.

You are obviously one of those who live not too far from the local IO.

 

[holy cow cm]

35 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

I thought the 800,000 Thb, parked in a Thai Bank ?,

was to cover that,so they knew you had money to

pay for hospital bills.

Now I am thinking some people in authority have

shares in insurance companies,or at the very least

are been lobbied by them.

regards worgeordie

 

800k THB in the bank is to feed the banks which feeds their economy and feeds the feeding frenzy for the trough. Just think 800,000 x 80,000 retiree = 64,000,000,000 Billion THB or about $2.1 Billion USD.

 

Cut that to 40,000 retiree or the hold of 400,000 baht and it is still $1.05 billion USD. Can you see where the push is coming from to require expats to put up the money comes from?

 

Then add all that money in mandatory insurance and you have a huge cash cow. The actual expat numbers are greater than those figures. 

[Jingjock]

3 hours ago, gillap said:

a warning to all expats who don't have insurance and are due for visa renewals...full implementation maybe not this year but one has to think next year it will be fully implemated!

Can I borrow your crystal ball if you are not using it right now. You might need to use it to help with your spelling as well.