ole1291

Duly noted. Thanks.

And with regards to his age, would it maybe be better to wait a few years? The hernia only 'descends' some days and the operation seems to be elective.

Also forgot to mention, the operation will be sewing only, no net, which I thought were common now. Again, not something you get to choose.

Thanks for your advice. Very valuable. I'll definitely keep it all in mind next time we speak with them. Umphang was enticing because of the proximity for all the follow up meetings etc... (once you choose a hospital for a particular problem, all the meetings take place there)

I'm not sure that they would allow us to go to Nakhon Sawang, the choice given to us was either Umphang or maesot, and in my understanding, in the public system you don't get to choose so much... I will try nonetheless. In any case, do you think this is an important thing to push for, or is the risk so negligible we can pass over it? And assuming Maesot doesn't have a PICU, is there any reason to go there rather than Umphang?

Thank you for your input. As we are doing this through the public system, we have no say on who would perform the operation, but I'll keep this in mind. My main concern however would have to do with any complications resulting from the anesthesia, as the doctor told us it's more delicate at this young age. Is there any equipment (resuscitation?) might be missing in a local hospital vs a province capital one?

Hello, My 4 years old son (turning five in a month) son has a inguinal hernia. We've already been at the Umphang public hospital, met a very nice young doctor who told us that though these operations were previously done at maesot (bigger) hospital they have recently started doing them in Umphang as well ( a team of doctors and anesthetist traveling from maesot a few days a months to cary them out). She also gave us the option to go all the way to maesot to do it but assured us there's no difference from a safety point of view, she made a good impression on me. I just want to ask if someone knowledgeable knows if that is correct? Or is there some equipment (which one) in the bigger hospitals that makes these kinds of operations safer there?

Then it is indeed different. Thanks for clarifying those points. Very helpful.

I see. I've known numerous people however whom either weren't offered any life prolonging treatments or turned them down, with months remaining to live. They still required extensive medical attention to (somewhat) control their symptoms and reduce the pain. Towards the end, they had to be hospitalized, the last few months. In such a case, it is my understanding the insurance wouldn't cover those expenses (pain medication, home nursing, ultimate hospital stays). I understand this varies and I've also known other people who were switched to palliative care only a few days from death. The whole point of an insurance however, is to avoid those kind of gambles.

Thank you Sheryl for this informative reply. Previously, while corresponding with AAinsure, this is what they told me about the applicability of palliative care: With regards to hospice care generally, is it so that once an illness is declared terminal, hospital stay will only be covered by the amount stipulated under "palliative care" or be paid by the insured own pocket? Whether or not a condition is qualified as palliative is evaluated based on medical reports and international medical definitions as regards to palliative care/treatment. Should it however come to a stage where the condition is labelled as palliative care, coverage is indeed limited to palliative cover of the policy. It does seem to indicate that insurances would terminate normal coverage in case an illness is terminal. I guess the crux is whether the hospital notifies the insurance... but one would assume the insurer would be eager to find out.

While browsing the benefit table for the different options for private health insurance in Thailand, I noticed a hospice/palliative care column. This, it turns out, is the amount the insurance will pay for all the comfort/pain treatment you will be given once your condition is declared non treatable (with usually a 6 months max life expectancy). As an example, April Thailand's extensive plan will offer ฿ 1,637,500 in such a case. The problem is I have no idea what the typical cost for such matters run at in Thailand, but I guess a multi month stay in a private hospital could run in the millions. I realize this is something hard to estimate, depending on the condition, life expectancy etc... but a ballpark figure would help, perhaps someone who works in the insurance business here would have seen sample cases he can share with us? I think it's important for people to realize that once an illness is declared untreatable, the insurance will only cover medical expenses up to the amount specified under palliative care (which is usually way below the policy overall coverage, sometimes even zero). A little underhanded and could be a bad surprise for someone who thought he was covered. That leads me to my second question which is how good is palliative care in Thai public hospitals (insurance would be for my Thai wife)? My feeling, at least in the country hospitals, not good. Huge wards, indifferent/rude nurses etc...

Yes, that's the thing I guess, being far from the big cities (12h from BKK, 9h from CM), health care options are pretty limited, one way or another, and there's no perfect solution As we're both still under 40, I think we're fine here for now, but it might make sense to move as we get older. Thank you for advice. Very useful to have all this in mind before committing to something.

Will do. Thanks for the advice.

Thank you for explaining. The plan is to stay here long term, perhaps until we're old. But it's not 100%, hence why a worldwide excl USA policy is appealing. We're trying to get insured while relatively young and without preconditions as per your recommendations. That's why I'm trying to be so careful, don't want to pay 20 years of premiums only to be swindled later or have a company go broke on us just at the time we will need them.

She has a residence permit valid to 2027. The country is Norway, not technically EU but schengen EEA area (I think it's the same regs). While there she was uninsured (I thought her being my wife entitled her to local health care, but it's not 100% clear). Having a house shouldn't equal with permanent residence. We have a house in Norway too. But I see how things could get dicey. Frustrating because we wouldn't be technically committing fraud, just circumventing protectionist regs.