Leveraged

1 minute ago, Chris.B said:

That leads to a secondary question.... 'do you consider the country you were born in as your home?'

Doesn't matter. What matters is that for most of us, our home or home country or "place where we were born" or whatever you want to call it, allows us to stay there without drama and provides at least some form of financial and medical aid. 

44 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

The ONLY way to be a bit more certain of the future, is to get Thai Citizenship ! Health care is then no longer an issue and neither are visas permits  etc. (Those being the main stumbling blocks/concerns for most).

Or just have a way to get out and not put all of your proverbial eggs in Thailand's basket. 

Come, stay, enjoy, but dont invest too much and if it ever gets funky, just go home. 

Or take maybe a neighboring country where they wouldn't mind old retirees and dont make them jump through hoops. 

13 minutes ago, 86Tiger said:

I had a good friend stoke out few years back in Patts.

 

He was alone, no family in Thailand.  He opened his eyes but he wasn't really there anymore and needed 24/7 care. Hospital sent him to a nursing facility.  The nursing facility took care of all the visa issues for the 2 1/2 years he lived.  His brother back in US arranged his SS and military pension to go to the nursing facility.

Thanks. Sorry to hear about your friend, but sounds like he was well taken care of and wasn't a burden on anyone, which is about all we can hope for I think. 

Do you have any idea of what the cost of this was? And what was the location? Pattaya? 

3 minutes ago, Tanomazu said:

Thailand would be a far better place to get care as an elderly person than literally any country in the West. Much cheaper as well.

I do not doubt this in the slightest, but issues to consider are the cost out of pocket or the cost of insurance over the years to cover this potential eventuality. 

4 minutes ago, Tanomazu said:

Only the visa paperwork would be an issue, but you can probably find someone to help you with it.

Speculation at the moment, but something to look in to. If there are "homes" that expats are eligible for that take care of visa issues until death, that would be an option and worth considering. 

20 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

If you live in the land of "what if" you"ll go crazy and might just aswell hide under your bed in farangland.

 

Thailand IS NOT the place for you based on the above.

 

Just an opinion.

Everyone is welcome to their opinion. 

My opinion of the above comment is that its a dangerously short-sighted and irresponsible "YOLO" thought process that is akin to playing roulette at a casino. 

FYI I have a wife and kids in Thailand and been living there on and off for 15 years. I am simply commenting and looking for input on retiring and dying in thailand, and what peoples plans are for the inevitable issues that will arise from it. 

Tons of people want to retire to Thailand and loads of people always talk about living in Thailand, but the one thing nobody ever talks about is the long term aspect of retiring in Thailand. 

For example: Getting very old and dying in Thailand. 

Recently my grandmother passed away in my home country and her last 3-4 years were very very hard for everyone. Watching this happen really made me re-think retiring to Thailand. Some points ive been thinking about and would like input on: 

1 ~ Medical insurance for people over 65 is almost impossible to get, and most policies ive seen that cover people over 65, only allow you to do so if you've been a long time policy holder prior to reaching 65 and the policy prices skyrocket as you get older. Ive seen some policies cost 300,000 baht per year for someone who's over 80 years old. So you're either gonna fork over a fortune in insurance, or pay out of pocket. 

2 ~ So you've reached retirement age and you make the big move to Thailand. Got your house or condo or whatever and youre living the good life. Youre on a marriage visa and yearly extensions. Time goes on and all of a sudden you outlive your wife at 70 years old. What then? Move to a retirement visa with yearly extensions? What about the insurance requirement for OA visas? 

3 ~ This is probably the most important one ive been considering: Everything is all good and time goes on. If youre lucky you live a good strong life and then unexpectedly have a massive heart attack or stroke and drop dead instantly at 80 years old. BUT what about if you aren't so lucky and develop Alzheimer's and need constant care, or severe Diabetes, or have a bad stroke and are crippled and cant talk etc? What then? You still gonna do the whole immigration hassle/run-around/drama/waiting in lines/sweating your balls off/goalpost shifting nonsense in that state?  Personally I can not possibly see how this would be in any way reasonable or possible after seeing first hand how my grandmother was in her last few years. 

Any input would be helpful on the above concerns. I would like to hear how others are planning for their end-of-life stage in Thailand and what they plan to do so that they are not a burden on anyone. It would be appreciated to hear how people plan to overcome these hurdles.