Canoodler

Thanks, I never thought about any tax-free lump sum. I'm now going to see if I can find out more information about that .

Hi and thanks for your thoughts. I have been continuously using a retirement visa ( Non – O ) for around 10 years. ( 800,000.00 Baht ) . Yes , even if I do change my current retirement visa to a married to a Thai spouse visa , and doing that would then give me an extra 400,000.00 Baht , With the new Cigna monthly payment being 18,500.00 Baht , which is approximately ( 222,000.00 Baht a year ) . That would mean that the extra 400,000.00 Baht , would only help pay the Cigna monthly payments for about Two years . The thorn in my side is that should I terminate my Cigna health insurance policy , I have this nightmare , that a few weeks after terminating my Cigna health insurance policy , I have chest pains and wake up in a hospital ICU and the cost for my treatment amounts to more than I have in my limited Thai bank savings account ( 2 Million Baht ) . It feels like a time bomb ticking away . 😟

I originally told the DWP that I was relocating to Thailand, thinking that it was the right thing to do , now I know only to well , doing that was a BIG mistake that I have regretted ever since .

Thanks for your comment, It has gone through my mind about the possibility of trying to generate some sort of income that would help my poor financial situation . My Thai wife of 20 years knows our situation and she is trying to think of ways that we could make some extra money. Personally Ive tried to think of ways to generate some income, but so far any thing Ive found , looks a bit too risky , where I could loose what little savings I have . We have both had to cut back on our spending , and forgo many things that we once enjoyed and looked forward to. While out shopping we tend to only purchase items that have a reduced price tag, or near the end of their sell by date. Ive also stopped buying any foreign food or drinks , due to them being too expensive. Ive stopped drinking alcohol , again to cut back our spending. We take no holiday trips or leave our house , because us doing that only ends up having to spend more money. My savings are deposited in a Bangkok Bank account which offers virtually no interest , and trying to find a better solution to earn more interest, may be a too risky task . My financial situation is some thing thats constantly playing on my mind , to a point where now I’m having a great deal of problems managing to get to sleep at night .

It has gone through my mind about temporally returning back to the Uk , to try and get back into the system and get my British state pension un frozen , or trying my luck in the Philippines . Sadly with returning back to the Uk , I have no living family relatives, and all my past friends have either immigrated to another country , or have passed away. So locating cheap accommodation for how long it may take to get my British state pension un frozen , may be very expensive . There has been some excellent comments and advice about my current situation , but no matter what route I take , be it to terminate my Cigna Health insurance , and some how rely on my never increasing Thai bank saving account, to be there should I need urgent inpatient medical treatment , Or change my current retirement visa to a married to a Thai spouse visa ( giving me 400,000.00 Thai Baht extra ) to utilize, and then use the discount payment options from Cigna , and then carry on paying the Cigna health insurance monthly payments , which are both unnerving and stressful options.

Sheryl , thanks for your comprehensive reply I emailed the Cigna representative and asked them to confirm the discount amounts available , this was their reply Thanks for getting back to me. If you were to pay quarterly the price would be £1228.89 per quarter. ( 3 months ) approximately 52,900.00 Thai Baht and the approximate monthly payment would work out to 17,650 Baht a month. And if you were to pay the premium in one go annually it would be £4560.81 , approximately 196,307.00 Thai Baht and the approximate monthly payment would work out to 16,366 Baht a month . The new monthly payment without any discounts would be £422.27 , approximately 18,500.00 Thai Baht . I also had a look at whats involved in changing my current retirement visa into a married to a Thai spouse visa ( freeing up 400,000.00 Baht ) . Doing that visa change seem a real pain in the backside . The Cigna monthly amounts are taken from my Thai bank and are subject to any currency fluctuations ( £ / ฿ ) .

Thanks for that , is K Bank insurance for health cover .

When the time comes and the Grim Reaper comes knocking at my door , I will only have one last request. I want to pass away during the night after I have gone to sleep .So when my wife finds me laying there in the morning stone cold dead with a smile on my face , she may wonder why is he smiling.. My other concern is what is going to happen to me when I kick the bucket, is there an afterlife where I will be reborn a rich and hansom man , or will I just cease to exist . The one thing I’m sure about is that after I have shed this mortal coil , at some point someone will speak my name for the very last time.

This may come as a bit of a surprise , but at 75 years of age I have to say that for as long as I can remember I have had and still have a blood pressure thats within a normal range , Ive never really thought about my diet , just eating what ever I like. I have never been into physical activities apart from walking about. I am a bit overweight for my hight . I have a hospital blood test every 6 months , and the results have always generally been with in a normal range for some one of my age , apart for the last blood test which indicated a slight increase in my cholesterol . I have never been seriously sick or had an overnight hospital stay . Its a mystery to me as to why I seem to have been so lucky health wise , the only thing I can come up with is some sort of family genetics answer .

I wish I could be more like many of my local retired expat friends , who seem to consume large amounts of Chang beer / smoke cannabis , which apparently seems to have the effect of not having a care in the world. I would love to some way calm my mind down .

Thats the part that haunts me , a month after I had terminated my Cigna private health policy , I had chest pains and found my self in a hospital ICU .

Ive recently posted a topic in the Insurance in Thailand forum ( My private health insurance monthly cost is killing me ) . Due to my current poor and worrying financial situation , I am having great difficulty in being able to both get to sleep and staying asleep , as soon as my head hits the bed pillow , around 10 pm , my mind goes into over drive and starts to think about my financial issues and their implications, which generally keeps me awake for much longer . Some one who posted a reply to my insurance post , mentioned cannabis , as a possible answer to help with my poor sleep . So I thought would ask here to see if any one can advise me or recommend a cannabis product that may help me with my current poor sleep problem. I have never smoked cigarettes and I’m not currently taking any medication .

I try and not to think about the total amount of money that Ive paid to Cigna over all the past years , hindsight can some times be frightening. I wish I could turn the clock back in time . This old saying springs to mind… You made a rod for your own back.

Thats the question that I’m trying to answer in my own mind , but its not that easy.

Thanks , thats interesting.

If only I could turn back the clock and do things differently .

Thanks for your comment . At the ripe old age of 75 , where my health is concerned, it feels like being between a rock and a hard place, one the one hand my mind is telling me to be sensible and plan for the future , by arranging expensive private medical insurance , even if doing that causes me increasing amounts of stress and anxiety . One the other hand , as recommended by many of my local Thailand based retired expat friends , who keep reminding me to just enjoy life and spend my money just enjoying myself , and to stop worrying about what may never happen .But I think a large number of my retired expat friends who are normally in a state of constant happiness due to the help they receive from their friends , Mr Chang beer and Mr Cannabis . As for returning back to permanently live the uk, again because of my poor financial situation , sadly that is not an option .

The Cigna health insurance policy I have is the Close Care option ( see the attached chart )

Ive just checked my Cigna policy paper work and its showing that its the Close Care option If using a visa agent is too risky , the only other safer option I can see apart from self insuring , seems to be changing from my current retirement visa ( 800,000.00 Baht ) to the married visa option ( 400,000.00 Baht ) which would then make 400,000.00 Baht available to use. The new Cigna monthly payment of 18,500.00 Baht , works out to 222,000,00 Baht per year , so in theory if I terminated my Cigna health insurance policy , I would be saving 222,000,00 Baht , which means that if I needed any inpatient medical hospital treatment , that saving of 222,000,00 Baht , could be used to pay for or in part for any inpatient medical hospital treatment required. I’m still not 100% sure which course of action to take , I suppose I could just carry on paying the ever increasing Cigna health insurance monthly payments , over the coming years , until my savings of 2 Million Baht reaches a critical low point . I have had an email from Cigna about ways to reduce the monthly payment cost and this was their reply shown below (Start) This would change the renewal price £2000 deductible = £389.36 per month. £5000 deductible = £345.15 per month. £6650 deductible = £307.70 per month. Converted to Thai Baht shown below £2000 deductible ( 85,935.86 Thai Baht ) £5000 deductible ( 214,839.65 Thai Baht ) £6650 deductible ( 285, 736.73 Thai Baht ) There are 2 other options to reduce cost and that is how the premium is paid over the policy year. If you pay quarterly, it adds a 3% discount. And then if paid annually it’s a 10% discount. ( End ) All the above Cigna options don’t seem to make a great difference . This whole Cigna health insurance / my financial situation is stressing me out to a point where its constantly playing on my mind.

Thanks, I am at hospital for a blood test in a few weeks so I will ask the doctor about having an EKG test.

The being priced out is some thing that is going to happen , even with the latest Cigna monthly payment of 18,500 Baht a month being a stress inducing factor, just thinking about what the Cigna monthly payments will increase to over the coming years is a very frightening thought . I have approached Cigna and asked them if they have another health insurance product that they can offer me , that cost less than I’m currently paying. Their answer was No. I have shown what my current Cigna private health police covers .

Thanks, I never thought about the ‘’ you don't have to get treated, at 75 that's a good life ‘’ .. Yes I suppose in some way at 75 years of age , why would you want to financially spend what little money you have left , by paying for private health insurance in the hope that doing so , may possibly keep you alive for another year or Two. You hit on a good point that after receiving the recent Cigna monthly increase, but what about all the coming future years of the Cigna monthly increases , just thinking about what next years Cigna increase will be, only gets me more stressed out

Thanks for the information about the UK hospital medical treatment. Yes I arrived in Thailand a divorced man who had sold up every thing back in the UK , thinking to my self ( after a few past holidays in Pattaya ) that Thailand was a paradise where I wanted to live in for ever. I wish I could be more positive and find an act of faith that would enable me to stop worrying and getting stressed out about my financial situation and the Cigna thorn in my side.

I do have 6 monthly blood tests that generally show no problems , I take my blood pressure at home on a weekly basis , and its always within a normal range . At 75 years of age and never ever suffering from a serious medical condition or being a hospital inpatient , I have no idea compared to friends of the same age, just why I have been very lucky so far health wise. Having said all that I do constantly worry about my financial situation , which is giving me anxiety and sleepless nights.

Ive been very lucky so far where my health is concerned. But I have a funny feeling that one week after I terminate my Cigna health insurance policy, I will be taken sick and admitted to hospital , thinking to my self, what a fool I was to ditch my Cigna private health insurance policy. On the other hand its now a struggle to keep paying the Cigna monthly payments .