Thai Tourism: "Half of foreigners" don't pay their hospital bills; director points finger at three nationalities

[mercman24]

well worth repeating, my mate caught denghi fever , 3 days in the exortionate, Bangkok Pattaya hospital, i had to break into his room to get his credit cards before they would let him leave, i smell <deleted>, oh he was fully insured, they wanted to see the money. (got a full refund on his return) so i cant see the dam problem with all of thes tourists, *oh its not going to happen to me syndrome* Thailand is number one for road traffic accidents i bet 99% of these hospital visits was vehicle/highway related, would be interesting for a stat on this

[WalkingOrders]

7 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

you do understand hatred and dislike are entirely different words with much different meanings?

Not if you wish a permanent, never to be recovered from, economic downturn on them all. In Disney terms that would be "A curse upon you all" 

[vivananahuahin]

Me too 8 years ago,first pay 27.000 and then credit card in Bangkok hospital,a bite from a dog!!!!

[WalkingOrders]

32 minutes ago, sirineou said:

the OP is that according to the official statistics the average per turist cost to Thailand is about 12 bht.

12 BHT  IMO enough said. 

I am not sure what the point is here. 12 baht per tourist. Not trying to be argumentative or ignorant but I simply do not understand wht point you are making. OK 12 baht per tourist. It is still money lost by the individual hospital. They can't look at the loss and say well its only 12 baht per tourist can they? There is a total amount of money, and its lost to them. Are you saying that Thailand should charge every tourist at minimum 12 baht and then form a pool of money to pay back any hospital that suffered a loss? I suppose that is doable but that sort of leaves the door open for a whole lot of corruption and greed, that's what happens when there is a big pool of money to be drawn out of - happens in any country. But maybe I am misunderstanding your overall point regarding 12 baht. Again not trying to be argumentative I just do not understand what you mean.

Edited November 29, 2019 by WalkingOrders
spelling

[mercman24]

totally agree with post 18, they were going to add, 100 baht on entry, christ its not even a beer, but the idiots shelved that idea, they would be handsomely in profit, but no, they just want to whinge after the horse has bolted, quite easy to do, if they can harrass us who live here, why not robbing tourists, they have got their names, when they get to the airport just say sorry you cannot fly until you settle your debts , simple

[sirineou]

3 minutes ago, Eligius said:

I simply do not believe the claims. No way are 50% of tourists doing a runner from hospitals without paying their bills. This is a ludicrous claim.

 

Like so many things in Thailand (officialdom), these are utterly unbelievable figures conjured out of thin air - and always aimed at raking in more money.

 of course it can't be true, The numbers don't lie.

448,000,000 baht unpaid bills 2019n

39,000,000 tourists  2019

Average cost per tourist= 11.4 BHT

so if half the tourists did not pay their bills it would mean that the average bill was 22.8 bht which of course is ridiculous.

 Obviously they meant that half the tourists that visit the hospitals don't pay their bill.  

Which of course can be significant to the individual hospitals but not to the Thai economy. so  compensate the hospitals, and a simple surcharge the tourists of 12 bht  (perhaps 12 bht higher visa cost )  that would go totally unnoticed  would cover the costs. , Or just eat it as a cost of doing business.  

 

 

[sirineou]

3 minutes ago, WalkingOrders said:

I am not sure what the point is here. 12 baht per tourist. Not trying to be argumentative or ignorant but I simply do not understand wht point you are making. OK 12 baht per tourist. It is still money lost by the individual hospital. They can't look at the loss and say well its only 12 baht per tourist can they? There is a total amount of money, and its lost to them. Are you saying that Thailand should charge every tourist at minimum 12 baht and then form a pool of money to pay back any hospital that suffered a loss? I suppose that is doable but that sort of leaves the door open for a whole lot of corruption and greed, that's what happens when there is a big pool of money to be drawn out of - happens in any country. But maybe I am misunderstanding your overall point regarding 12 baht. Again not trying to be argumentative I just do not understand what you mean.

I addressed that point in the last paragraph of the above reply

Edited November 29, 2019 by sirineou

[Destiny1990]

Most of them might have gotten hospitalized by locals to blame for. Likely these locals did not have proper insurance!!

[WalkingOrders]

34 minutes ago, Enoon said:

Any bets that it is mostly Chinese, but they don't want to say so?

Like you, I would love to see a further breakdown of the figures.

[Expattaff1308]

1 hour ago, Jessoro said:

Just make it compulsory for travel insurance like other European countries 

and stop blaming the Expat community.

[Odysseus123]

11 minutes ago, mercman24 said:

totally agree with post 18, they were going to add, 100 baht on entry, christ its not even a beer, but the idiots shelved that idea, they would be handsomely in profit, but no, they just want to whinge after the horse has bolted, quite easy to do, if they can harrass us who live here, why not robbing tourists, they have got their names, when they get to the airport just say sorry you cannot fly until you settle your debts , simple

Well..they can't do that because they are talking a load of old cobblers (for domestic consumption) anyway.

 

The Chinese are waking up to the Land of Rort to the south.

 

Sooner or later they will be following banners in the major tourist spots emblazoned "Don't Thai me"

Edited November 29, 2019 by Odysseus123

[torturedsole]

I don't trust Thai mathematicians as they appear to have been educated at the Diane Abbott School of Economics which isn't well-regarded.  Let's take yesterday's headline that assures us that Indians spend 10000 baht per day, for example, which is simply nonsense.  

 

Other than that only a lunatic would come to the most the dangerous place on earth without travel insurance.  

 

 

[Soikhaonoiken]

I can't understand how you can leave the hospital without paying, on the few occasions I have had to visit Bangkok hospital, after treatment I was escorted to the cashiers desk, and they stayed at my side until the account had been settled, and on one occasion I was asked to pay part up front, I can understand if you are taken to hospital and died, yes they can't recover the money. 

[losername]

2 hours ago, metempsychotic said:

9000 people treated at a singe hospital, 448 million in unpaid bills countrywide.

You beat me to it.  Thank you.

[Swimfan]

cost equates to .00002% of income from tourism

[Is this real]

The hospitals aren't losing money.  They've inflated all the charges made to non-Thais who can pay or have insurance that will.

The story of losing money on non-payers is told world wide.  Most is just plain bull.

[racyrick]

How do you leave the hospital without paying your bill????

[Myran]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Result = almost no tourists.

 

I do wonder how the 9,000 foreigners treated over the last year causes 448 Million in bills to be unpaid.

Even if we're talking 10x the normal billing for foreigners.

 

Read again – they are two separate statements, the first referring to the entire health system and the second a single hospital

[heybuz]

1 hour ago, ravip said:

Do you suggest free medical treatment for all tourists/foreigners? Could you please name any other country that does this? Tourists to the West needs insurance...

Australia used to until they woke up, also you could sign on the dole and get paid.

Edited November 29, 2019 by heybuz
Misspelled

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

And half of all patients left without paying their bills.

 

This strikes me as more ginned up anti-foreigner sentiment, and/or a prelude to the government's campaign for expanding the current O-A insurance scheme, which is SO badly structured as it is.

 

I don't believe the guy's supposed "half" claim even one little bit.

 

[Catoholic]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Vachira Hospital, the largest in Phuket, treated 9,000 foreigners over the last year. Most of them were Russian, Chinese and French, said hospital director Dr Chalermpong Sukhonthaphon.

communist countries with "free" medical care. it must really suck to be from Russia, or China or to be poor in France ????

[moe666]

This rant comes out about this time of the year every year, it will be interesting to see how well the O-A visa insurance goes its success or lack of it may determine if it goes on to include non-o visa in the insurance scam.

[hkt83100]

Don't forget that everybody preaching the country is paying a departure tax of 500 Baht (or had it gone up?), which is filling the koffers quite well. Years ago you had to pay extra at the airport, now it is included inn the price of the ticket. Where are these billions going to? ????

[phka]

Here we go mandatory health insurance again

[NanLaew]

2 hours ago, Isaanbiker said:

That's an average of 50,000 baht for each foreigner. Land of Lies?

 

I had a chat with a Thai doctor from Sapphasit/Ubon R, but he said something totally different.

 

  The majority were from neighboring countries like Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. 

A visit to the ER and maybe a couple of nights in a private ward + consultation fees + medications + a couple of outpatient visits and Bam!... there's your 50 k baht hospital bill easy.

 

Ubon would see more local migrant workers than Phuket but maybe not too many exotic, water sports related or otherwise serious injuries?

 

The Lao contingent that pops over for treatment at the two main private hospitals in Udon have more issues parking their Lexus's, Ferrari's, Range Rovers and Denali's than paying their hospital bills.

[4MyEgo]

Increase taxes by 1% in tourist places and that extra 1% can go into a hospital slush funds to cover any short falls.

 

We all know there are a hell of a lot of people making a good keep from tourism, so perhaps they can fork out that 1% on top of the kickbacks they already provide to others to turn their heads the other way, nudge nudge, wink wink.

 

I think if Thailand thinks that by making tourists take out necessary insurance, which should be a worldwide thing, i.e. it should be mandatory worldwide that anyone traveling has travel insurance otherwise they don't get off the ground to wherever they are going, but if they go it alone, that 2 to 2.5 mil or so dollars they are thinking they are going to recover, is gonna cost them far more than that.  

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

3 minutes ago, moe666 said:

This rant comes out about this time of the year every year, it will be interesting to see how well the O-A visa insurance goes its success or lack of it may determine if it goes on to include non-o visa in the insurance scam.

 

And usually seems to come out of some hospital or hospitals in Phuket, for some reason.... You're right about this being a recurring rant from them.

 

[denishuahin]

Just a thought, do the 40,000 Thai in the UK pay their hospital bills?  I have always paid my hospital bills luckily not many, but at 73 very hard to get good heath insurance. 

[300sd]

Motto for the ones that run: "don't cheat me and I won't cheat you"! 

 

Motto for the farang hospital: "It's easy to steal from a captive audience"!

 

 

[CLS]

10 minutes ago, hkt83100 said:

Don't forget that everybody preaching the country is paying a departure tax of 500 Baht (or had it gone up?), which is filling the koffers quite well. Years ago you had to pay extra at the airport, now it is included inn the price of the ticket. Where are these billions going to? ????

This was the airport tax of 500฿ to pay in cash only before departure. Now 700฿ are included in every international flight ticket. It took long for this third world country to catch up with international standards.