4MyEgo

I suppose one could counter that with, Thailand jumped the gun opening up for tourists, and doing it the Thai way, will cost Thailand as the word spreads. I for example won't be going on holiday to a certain destination because I would have to home quarantine for 7 days, and as if that is going to happen, Thailand on the other hand says, 1 day quarantine, then as Gomer Pyle would say below. If you are found to be tested positive or have been within cooee of someone else, it's off to the hospital or quarantine for 14 days, cha ching !

All I can say is thank Buddha this is Thailand, I mean could you imagine the scams that could start from this, e.g. 10% kickback to the person doing the swab to the unsuspecting visitor, off he goes to the hotel for quarantine or hospital, charges varying in degree. Like I said, lucky this couldn't happen in Thailand, jet ski's and other things sure, but this is too big, right ?

I think they will be a long ways off as they still have to vaccinate a lot of Thai's at the moment with the USA recently wanting to donate a million doses of Moderna which they are putting forward to parliament, go figure. You could ask around for a Moderna shot as I am sure a lot of expats who paid for them previous to knowing that the USA was donating Pfizer to expats and Thai front line workers who had their Pfizer jabs won't be needing them, others will, otherwise it will be a wait in my opinion.

OMG, almost had heart failure as I fit into 2 of the criteria, i.e. Citizen and Australian Economic Interests, however never return for 45 days in any given year, so I retain my Non Residency for tax purposes. This is going to hit a few expats if it is passed, but at the same time will assist a few expats. The good and the bad, thx for that.

Must it be general insurance, not just Covid ? I can refer you to a broker that I have found to be really good, no charge, it might be worth a shot, albeit I know the annual premium for over 70's would probably be as much as a return ticket to the moon, but if it's only a once up, then it might be feasible for you ?

Just make sure he is a registered Notary and not just a lawyer as it won't be of any use for you. Good luck.

I don't believe this to be an annual insurance if you leave the country, e.g. it's just insurance for Covid cover specifically when entering Thailand, if I am not mistaken. The above said, if you intend on leaving the country and then re-entering and require said insurance as the new change, and can get it specifically for just Covid, or not, then perhaps you could look for a loophole, e.g. not suggesting you do this of course, but if one was to look to take the policy a day or two before you travel, pay for it, but not before finding a policy which has a cooling off period of say 7 days without any penalty, then one gets here, shows insurance coverage, passes immigration and then cancels the said paid policy within the cooling off period and gets a refund. Oh and whatever you do, don't throw that policy away, because if you need it to extend before the expiration date, you could show it again, no one should be the wiser that it has been cancelled. More than one way to skin a cat, me thinks. Genius.

Is it your principal place of residency In AUS ? If that's the case and you live overseas and are a non resident for tax purposes your capital gains tax if you sell the property when living overseas is up to 42% from the date you purchased it, e.g. purchased 1986 for a mil, sold in 2021 for 2 mil, capital gains tax as a non resident is up to $820,000 AUS. Also all the time you rented it, they take 32c in the $ off the bat. If you can prove your still a resident by keeping Australia as your Abode then it will be the normal CGT and you get the 50% discount, but that's not easy if your living abroad as an expat, e.g. not working, retired living off of the pension etc, others will argue that, but I have read some interesting cases that proved otherwise. If you do 6 monthly stints, your ok as you still retain your residency as an Australian resident for tax purposes.

i.e. until your unlucky enough to end up in hospital under an emergency situation, then you will really know where you stand, public or private, 2-3 star or 4-5 star ????

Yep, it used to be from the date you left the country, suffice to say you get a property valuer, like myself to p the value as at the date you left the country and that is when your capital gains tax event would apply if you sold it as an expat in years down the track, now, no property valuation required, they know when you purchased it and will stick in you without the L... from the first day you exchanged contracts. There would be a way around that I would imagine but cannot confirm, i.e. the expat moves back into and establishes his tax residency, gets a valuation as at the date he left and a valuation as at the date he returned so that he can determine what his place was worth when he left and when he returned and then his accountant can work out what his CGT payable will be when he sells. If they didn't allow that, they should be hung. So it boils down to selling if you not returning, otherwise it's 42% for the expat. As for the pension, if you wait till your 67, you can take it overseas, if you leave before that age, you have to return, apply, receive, and wait 2 years before you can have it paid overseas, yep, the lucky country is not for those of us that leave it, that is unless your sick of just surviving there and want to start living here in Thailand, but you have to be financial of course. No regrets, best move ever made, life's good, actually, it's great !

It's all about risk vs benefit, at the end of the day, you either get what you paid for, or you get nothing, the nothing, being peace of mind that your covered, even if you haven't made a claim, the later being my preferred.

I had a Basil Carcinoma on my face removed from the same hospital that you went too a few years ago, that said, I wasn't insurance back then as insurers wouldn't cover me for my pre-existing condition, so I wouldn't go with them and self insured, i.e. until I found an insurer that did cover my pre-existing condition, and now that I am insured, my insurance is for emergency and or elective surgery. Thanks to Sheryl for putting me onto the same place that you went to as the cost was minimal (day procedure), if memory serves me correctly it was about 6,000 baht with the cream. The cost was the same as the cost for me to see the Dermatologist back in Aus when I was there on a brief visit. I would imagine a private hospital would have cost more than the 6,000 baht, but then again, they are not a government hospital and have to run it like a business, pay staff, have better surroundings, less waiting and it would be better than the 2 and a half hour drive to get to KK, plus follow ups no doubt meaning more long drives to and from, and what if I had to be admitted, the wife traveling so far, I don't think so. The person doing the procedure was an Associate Professor and spoke good English, I went through it as nervous as I was, but all worked out great, apart from the long, very long wait for the original assessment and then the procedure, although they fortunately squeezed me in when they were about to cancel, as I noted that I drove 2 and a half hours to get there and waited 4 hours so far, so was very lucky.

Yes, am aware of that thx, however as I have heard of a couple of guys of late being admitted into a private hospital by choice, one paying 750k baht for heart surgery and the other being admitted 3 times this year with a whopping bill of 2.6 mil baht, the later having insurance, it would only take one event like this for me to say, it was worth being insured, suffice to say, no doubt the premium would rise, then you would have to reconsider whether to continue with the insurer. The above said, even if it was a claim of 750k baht, that would be about 10 years worth of annual insurance polies paid that would have covered the bill, on the other hand if I didn't end up in hospital, I would be ok with that because I don't insure to get into hospital, I insure to stay out of hospital if that makes sense, but if I do end up in hospital, then I am covered. As the old saying goes, damned if you do, (not really), but damned if you don't for some. At the end of the day it's how you look at it and of course, one could say that they have us all by the short and curly's, it's business.

I know where your coming from, but we cannot predict the future and the risks are always there, if we all knew we wouldn't need to insure, we wouldn't and put that money to better use, that said, as I earn from investments, I factor in the annual policy costs of the policies and don't anyone think that it doesn't leave a bad taste in my mouth as I could use that money, e.g. 3 months of my annual budget or just 20% to better things, like holidays etc, that said, I couldn't bare seeing myself, my wife or my kids being treated in a public hospital, they are ok for the basics, but for the bigger stuff and personal care, it has to be private. The fact that I earn an income from investments and don't have to pay tax on them, I also look at it as a bonus that also pays for the annual policies, e.g. if I had to pay tax on my investments, it would 32% straight off of the cuff, so it's a blessing I don't have to. If I wasn't earning money from investments, it would be coming out of my savings, and if I had to pay tax on it, that would be something that I would have to seriously look at, but as long as I am making and it's not reducing my savings and the annual budget is met, then we continue to be blessed so to speak as others are not as fortunate.

I ran into this problem couple of years ago, and it was either the Aus Embassy for about 1,700 baht at the time if I recall correctly or a Notary about the same. This was for my bank back in Aus who I had been with for 2 decades, new Money Laundering Act, i.e. they had to prove who I was, go figure. Talking to a mate back in Oz who knew of a JP that I also knew, scanned the doc, emailed it to him, he signed and scanned it and emailed it back to me, then I emailed it to the bank, case closed, yes was lucky to find a JP to do that for me. So your options are a Notary here or a JP back in Oz, that said, being a former JP, they cannot sign declarations when overseas unless recognised to do so, that said, we all do what we got to do, so If you do find one, make sure the other side doesn't know you found a JP here because the S...could hit the fan.

As Peter42w suggested above.

Just one thing, pots of gold for me as you call it, came from nothing short of working my butt off for 40 years of work, hard work, long hours, sometimes 7 days a week and some lucky property investments, certainly not a millionaire, but close, however in Thailand very comfortable. The above said, no pension, unless I return in 6 years time and apply, and if approved must stay for two years to be able to receive it here, in other words got to do the time and the way I figure it out, it would cost me more than what it's worth, i.e. would take me 4 years to recoup that money, so it's not worth it for me. So the pots of gold have to be invested for me to make a pension so to speak and there is always a risk, but we try and so far so good. I don't understand what you mean by frozen pension, have they stopped your pension for some reason if I can enquire ?

I put it down to the cold weather, lack of vitamin D & Zink ????

Great minds think alike and if the hospital is smart, they can make a buck out of it as I would be donating mine to the hospital as I won't have use for the 2nd jab and no point transferring it to someone else as they will need two doses, so the hospital can start thinking, hey this might be a good thing, failing the above months for my booster, I would transfer it to my sister-in-law as she wants to buy it off of me, and that would be a loss to the hospital. Just got to make sure I can get a booster of some kind from somewhere first.

The policy I have is for life, that said, if they increase the policy dramatically as I age, then yes, I suppose you could call that cancelled culture from my part.

If you call selling your property burning bridges, I have to disagree. Coming from Australia, the government forces expats to sell their principal place of residence or pay a hefty 42% capital gains tax from the very first day they purchased it if they sell it later. That said, they did me a favour, I sold up and invest my money and receive tax free returns, no capital gains tax as well, so for the last 6 years it's cost me nothing to live here in Thailand. Can I return tomorrow, sure can, still have the sale proceeds albeit that hasn't grown, but it also hasn't gone down, would I return tomorrow, not unless it's out of my control, as someone said earlier, back in the old country I was surviving, now in Thailand I am living, and that is exactly what I have been doing. I can't compare my home country to Thailand as its a better place to live, as for affordability, Thailand has won hands down for me the last 6 years with at least a dozen domestic trips, 3 overseas trips and not a stress in the world, retirement is great if you are financial and know how to spend within your means, while at the same time making your money pay for your retirement years.

That's your choice, who is sneering, it appears that you see insurance companies as sharks because you either cannot afford them, or two, you have had a bad experience with them in the past, that said, not all are the same and if everyone could be insured for a reasonable amount to pay, all would be insured as opposed to using the public system. Nothing wrong with government hospitals for those that can't afford the private hospitals, simple really......sneer ????

What about those that haven't been vaccinated because of the c-r-a-p choices in vaccines your government forced onto the Thai's, not even allowing them to buy other vaccines, disgraceful, power hungry mongrels, my wife would tell you if she ever got the chance.

I couldn't have summed it up better.

That sounds about right, US $'s that is. You have the policy @ say $385 USD & the additional pre-existing coverage which is optional @ say $77 USD if you choose to take it, therefore the total would be say $5,220 USD per annum. If you chose not to take the additional coverage to cover your pre-existing condition, your pre-existing condition would be excluded from the policy and in the event of your pre-existing condition deciding to come back and haunt you, that cost for everything is all yours, no coverage by the insurer.