nong38

My retirement visa is due for renewal next week, last year I was not asked about any insurance requirement si it will be interesting to see what they say.

If you are coming up to the age barrier of 75 it might be worth taking up this offer if it will g'tee you up to 99, the unknown factor here being the future premiums. 

A further question someone might answer as a lot of us ex-pats take an annual trip home in normal times would this insurance scheme combine with a re-entry permit to allow entry back into Thailand?

2 hours ago, JTXR said:

I already have 400K baht health cover required for my OA extension.  If I leave Thailand for any reason, I will need to keep that one (for non-Covid stuff) plus add the $100K Covid cover.  At my age (70), the total premiums will probably be prohibitive.  So my next trip out of Thailand is likely to be my last.  Sad.

 

For many who have retired here but still make a trip back to the old country to see family and friends this looks like a body blow for as you say as time goes by and the age goes up the chances of getting reasonable insurance diminishes by the year so as you say if you leave it likely would be permanent and yes it is sad, the life you knew only a year ago turned inside out. Its also sad for the people you live with in Thailand, you cannot come back and therefore will need to take your assets with you with all the pain that would cause.

I have not seen any evidence that the hospitals here are out of pocket due to tourists, in fact when I have used them in the past they wanted to see insurance cover or credit card before anything happens. so, most normal would deduce that what is really going on here is that the Thai Insurance sector with help of the Government are out to exploit the current situation. The Thai tourist industry will pay the price for this poorly thought scheme, as always no looking at the future. forward planning would have shown that.

I have noticed a steady decline in the wearing of masks and the ones that do wear them I would say 50% have them under their nose or round their neck. It does amuse me when I see motorcyclists wearing masks but no helmet, if you are going to wear one in Thailand it ought to be the helmet, but then a mask can be bought for 10bts.

Most deaths are caused by motorcyclists not looking especially at cross roads and get bowled over, its as if they travelling in the stand-by mode/day dream mode.

Another reason to find another destination, why are treating potential visitors so badly, making them feel like criminals?

A note for you diaries, the UK November Financial update is on 25th November, it will be interesting to see what Rishi has to say especially about allowances as we did not get one this year and whether he is going to fiddle with pension triple lock situation.

I dont see much good news coming as sooner or later the cost of this virus is going to have to paid back.

23 hours ago, OumarhindaOunsingha said:

I would not be surprised if it was 30-40 percent, though. But no one really knows, very hard to calculate...

The elephant in the room here is the proposed health insurance scheme currently being talked about and how this might affect people on Marriage and Retirement Visas, so people on these visas return to Thailand I would bet would be encouraged to take out the insurance to get back into the country and a year later what will have happened to the renewal amount? Many who re over 60 will be seen as a large health risk, a higher rate or a no go?

As usual nothing is straight forward here and plenty of room for local interpretation.

I particularly like the bit about............the cost is reasonable.............depends who you ask. If you are not paying its reasonable, if you ask a Thai if he would like to pay he would say no and would not partake so I would suspect that most tourists will not entertain this poorly thought out venture, its another nail in the Golden Goose which is quickly becoming slim duck and it begs a further a question. What happens when covid-19 is no longer deemed a threat to the country?

On 10/26/2020 at 5:58 AM, simon43 said:

"New normal lifestyle"?  I'm intrigued also as to what this is.  My lifestyle is absolutely unchanged.  I can only think it refers to international travel, which certainly has been affected.  Otherwise, no changes here....

Spot on old chap, same for me. The problem is overseas but for here the message I get from the Government is "Virus! what virus!" after all they have had so few cases and so few deaths. 

This is a bad move it will not stop the rallies quiet the opposite.

She needs to get out more.

Not much chance of the website crashing due to plethora of applications I think.

On 10/18/2020 at 10:55 AM, josephbloggs said:

So railways should not be built to anywhere that is quicker to reach by plane?  May as well rip up 90% of the world's lines then.

 

They'll catch the train there to ask for their money back?  Surely they'd fly as it's quicker.

I think you missed my point, I dont think the so called "high speed line" is designed for passengers its for access and that should answer your second remark, its not just the South China sea that they want its control over the whole region and the railway if it gets built would give that, I would hope that this does not turn out to be the case but China's recent postures and actions suggest that they wish to dominate the region by force is necessary.

The countries in debt have yet to twig the fact and should China ever recall the debt and the countries de fault that is when China might make a move and claim they have grounds and that is where the railway comes in to move things quickly. The railway is planned to go from China down to Singapore, why would you build that when its quicker to fly there? The railway gives China quick access to settle the debts.

Need to get rid of those draconian enter hoops or people will not bother to return and I mean all of them, if they get it wrong the tourists will desert this once popular destination for new horizons and the powers that be need to understand that there are very good alternatives.

It will make the transport of military equipment much quicker and easier should China fancy an empire. A high speed railway in this country does not benefit many and especially the route in question.

Its about time they fitted barriers and flashing lights but how long will it take to install? Then road users need to be educated into the use lights and barriers and therein lies the problem.

It would be interesting if they did a poll and just asked foreigners the questions and see what results they get.

I sometimes think that the tourism industry would be more than happy for tourists to arrive, leave their spending money at the airport which would be distributed accordingly and then flew home on the next available aircraft, it would be a bumper easy year for the sector and then when TAT added 5% for next year's arrivals and no one turned up how that would be viewed. They, the powers that be seem to me to be doing their very best to kill the golden goose of tourism in Thailand. Travellers have a world to choose from with plenty of places with easier access and less draconian laws no monk days to deprive one of a beverage on arrival.

9 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

The vast majority who have recovered are also experiencing very bad after effects.  Sad your freedoms are more important than protecting the lives of others.  It's not that difficult.  Wear a mask and social distance.  We can get this behind us if everyone just did these simple things.  And life would start to return to normal.  Like we have here in Thailand now.

Life is a risk, get used to it. You are welcome to give up your freedoms, it your choice but its not mine.

8 hours ago, nev said:

If you read the small print it says it may not be a accurate count of deaths by covid-19, so they are basically saying they are adding deaths with covid-19 to deaths by covid-19. Boosting the numbers again.

In 2015 57 million people died worldwide, whilst 1 million looks bad remember the world population is currently 7.8 billion. The vast majority of people who have contracted the disease have recovered, project fear in all its forms is at work and in many cases people with under lying illnesses have just found contracting covid-19 to much for the body to cope with but it suits some to put deaths down to the virus, meanwhile states of emergency restrict our freedoms and devalue our lives, we lose time we cannot buy back later.

Infrastructure, plenty of scope there for improvement and was it not earlier this year the bloke was talking about taking the capital out of Bangkok? If only he could remember what he said before, I think there is a collective name for this and old people get it.

By the time the vaccine arrives the virus will have mutated and the big effect of it will be lost, vaccines are always behind the curve as with flu. Get used to living with it as it mutates as we have in the past.

10 hours ago, johnnybangkok said:

Well since you are such a fan of free speach, here's mine............you're wrong!

The 'Continuous stream of mud has been thrown at Trump' is no different than the mud that was thrown at Obama with one major difference; ethically, morally and most importantly legaly, Obama did nothing wrong whereas Trump has stumbled from one controversy to another and deserves everything he gets.

From the moment he took office he has made a rod for his own back by surrounding himself with dubious characters, appointing highly unqualified people to key positions in the government and has never truly seperated his business interests from his presidential duties. He promised to reveal his tax returns nearly 4 years ago and we now know why he hasn't done it. He benefitted from Russian interferance in the 2016 election (no collusion but plenty of smoke with that fire) and tried to strong arm a foreign entity into investigating his political opponent. He's backed conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory and besmirched and ridiculed true patriots at every turn. For gods sake he even defrauded his own charity!

How this man is still in office is really the question and I think the media has gone as light/heavy on him as he absolutely deserves.

Anyway, I hope you don't mind being told things you dont want to hear. But it is my right after all.

 

We beg to differ but thats ok we are all different and all entitled to our own view and entitled to others as well.