INSURANCE

[OUAT41]

I Have traveled the world as a ship captain and still wonder why Thailand has not been able to figure out that if they put on at entrance 100 Thb to cover Insurance for Tourist would very well take care of any Hospital cost coverage. Many countries in the world have a entrance fee included in the Airline fee or change at entrance. This would eliminate I am sure any cost to the Hospitals or Government and would bring in extra money for the Hospitals.  Eliminate the High cost of making Expats trying to buy overpriced Insurance.    

[Antonymous]

Expats and tourists are different animals.

 

A medical surcharge on tourists each time they visit Thailand, which would then cover their medical care if they became ill or had an accident, could easily be abused by people coming here just for that purpose (requiring medical care that is, not having an accident).

 

And it wouldn't be reasonable to expect the money pot received from the tourists to also cover expats (foreigners who live here), many of whom don't travel outside Thailand much if at all.

 

Back to the drawing board.

[DaftToPutRealName]

They make it complicated by the fact that none of us are on residency visas, so technically we don't "live here", we get recurring permissions to stay which can technically be withdrawn at any time. 

Nothing, like actually living her with a PR or residency, entitles us to stay here.

[Airalee]

36 minutes ago, Antonymous said:

Expats and tourists are different animals.

 

A medical surcharge on tourists each time they visit Thailand, which would then cover their medical care if they became ill or had an accident, could easily be abused by people coming here just for that purpose (requiring medical care that is, not having an accident).

 

And it wouldn't be reasonable to expect the money pot received from the tourists to also cover expats (foreigners who live here), many of whom don't travel outside Thailand much if at all.

 

Back to the drawing board.

Good answer.  
 

There is also the basic math behind it.  Let’s say (for arguments sake) that 40,000,000 tourists come to Thailand annually and that there are 150,000 full time expats/retirees.  At ฿100 per tourist entry, if all the proceeds went to the expats, each expat would get less than ฿30,000.  Not even close enough to covering proper insurance/healthcare costs.  I do feel, however, that the premiums charged here for these newly required policies are not proportional to the policy limits coverage or the cost of healthcare here in Thailand (when compared to policies and healthcare costs in the US for example) and either the coverage limits should be higher...or the premiums lower.

Edited August 4, 2020 by Airalee

[Saraburi121]

If a 100 baht per head entering actually went to the hospitals and emergency response to chase recovering unpaid fees from those who are not from Thailand and improve overall facilities, including places outside major tourist areas, may be a good idea. Good for all.  If the fee was for medical insurance it would be a 100 baht free for all. It would be an administrative nightmare for the govt.

 

To the OP, I think I understand the intent of your post but the post seems to lack a basic understanding of Thailand.  

[FlyingThai]

Have you seen the existing lines at BKK Immigration (pre Covid)? Good luck trying to ask 100 THB cash from each tourist. There isn't even an ATM in the concourse prior to immigration and even if how is that supposed to work?

 

You can't automatically tag it onto the ticket price because in that case it would charge everyone including Thai passengers as there is no distinction during a ticket purchase when it comes to nationality.

 

Based on a BKK Post article from March 2019
 

Quote

 

... Last year, foreigners incurred Bt305 million in unpaid medical bills. Foreigners in 2017 left Bt346 million in unpaid medical bills. If categorised by the number of medical visits, statistics show about one-fifth of foreign patients did not pay their bills.

For instance, foreigners made 3.42 million medical visits last year, and did not pay for 680,000 of them, while in 2017, foreigners made 3.3 million medical visits and did not pay for 565,000 of them. ...

 

 

I'm not a fan of unpaid bills but those number aren't a lot for a country that draws 17% of it's GDP from tourism (3.20 Trillion Baht).

 

Do the numbers based on the total arrivals, even 100 Baht would simply be a cash grab! 3.8 Billion Baht would be taken in annually based on 100 Baht/arrival but the actual amount of bad medical debt per year is around 300 Mil Baht. That a 13-fold of the actual amount on unpaid medical bills.

 

That being said there are plenty of foreigners who pay dearly (get ripped off by hospitals) for their treatments and one can argue the hospitals have already priced the default rates in, just like any prudent business would do.

[Captain Monday]

The only country I knew of that did free insurance for visitors was Panama, no longer.

So not Many countries as the OP quoted.Of course it is not for long term care but for immediate sickness and accidents for short term visitors. Thailand should mandate a 300 baht per day required fee for all short term visitors. Example 30 day visa exempt 3000 baht. 60 day tourist visa 6000 baht. Applied to tourist facility improvements, tourist police improvements and a emergency injury fund that should solve most problems with the various lowlifes who supposedly "skip out" on hospitals fleeing the Kingdom leaving large medical bills.

 

[FlyingThai]

6 hours ago, Captain Monday said:

The only country I knew of that did free insurance for visitors was Panama, no longer.

So not Many countries as the OP quoted.Of course it is not for long term care but for immediate sickness and accidents for short term visitors. Thailand should mandate a 300 baht per day required fee for all short term visitors. Example 30 day visa exempt 3000 baht. 60 day tourist visa 6000 baht. Applied to tourist facility improvements, tourist police improvements and a emergency injury fund that should solve most problems with the various lowlifes who supposedly "skip out" on hospitals fleeing the Kingdom leaving large medical bills.

 

 

Ridiculous. Why should visitors pay $10 a day for some random insurance coverage? That exceeds by far what a very good travel insurance policy costs. We all know where this money would go and it's definitely not ending up improving any facilities.

 

The bad medical debt per year in Thailand is 300 Mio Baht which isn't a lot at all.

Edited August 5, 2020 by FlyingThai

[FlyingThai]

11 hours ago, Airalee said:

Good answer.  
 

There is also the basic math behind it.  Let’s say (for arguments sake) that 40,000,000 tourists come to Thailand annually and that there are 150,000 full time expats/retirees.  At ฿100 per tourist entry, if all the proceeds went to the expats, each expat would get less than ฿30,000.  Not even close enough to covering proper insurance/healthcare costs.  I do feel, however, that the premiums charged here for these newly required policies are not proportional to the policy limits coverage or the cost of healthcare here in Thailand (when compared to policies and healthcare costs in the US for example) and either the coverage limits should be higher...or the premiums lower.

 

My Aetna (formerly BUPA) Platinum costs me 3,600 Baht per month for the 5 Mio Baht worldwide coverage package and that includes coverage for Covid-19 (confirmed to me via official letter for immigration purposes).

 

That being said IMHO any real "Expat" aka person with legal papers to stay in a foreign country should have a medical insurance as precondition for even being allowed to stay.