Hua Hin shark attack victim: Insurance won't pay as wife slams authorities

[Just Weird]

5 hours ago, Proboscis said:

Lets name and shame the real sharks in this story, which is the insurance company. Tell us the name of the company so that no one will ever be suckered into ever buying insurance from them ever again. That will stop them from hiding their time restrictions in the "small print." Come one, Thai Visa - do us a public service! Name and shame the company!

There's no need for that, the Norwegian has already been named and shamed as the person who did not read his insurance policy, this is nothing to do with the ethics of an insurer.

[Sheryl]

Insurance policies vary, but there are travel insurance policies that will cover you for as much as 365 days in a row. And most  can be extended while you are still on the trip.

 

I take out travel insurance every year for when I go back to the US, as my main insurance is worldwide excluding the US.  I have at various times used 2 different insurers for this, both always sent  emailed reminders before the policy period lapsed, asking if I needed to extend  the coverage.

 

However we do not even know if the insurance in question was a travel policy, it could have been home country insurance that included a provision for emergency care while traveling abroad.

 

In either case it appears that this specific policy, whether travel insurance or regular home policy, covered care abroad for no more than 3 months and he had been here longer than that.

 

 

[Just Weird]

4 hours ago, johncat1 said:

He should name the insurance company as a warning to other people 

Why, what has the insurance company done to deserve that apart from not accepting a claim that wasn't covered by the policy that the Norwegian should have read the conditions of?   Maybe insurers should be officially advised of this man's name in case he tries to pull a fast one with another insurer.

[Just Weird]

3 hours ago, Telly said:

Ever noticed how these problems happen to those who don't read t n c

Ever noticed how these problems only happen to those who don't read t n c!

[Just Weird]

3 hours ago, Thomas Hannah said:

Rubbish.If you get it for the year.It allows you 90 days of stay at anytime.this is what he would have had.But it looks like he was there longer.19 stitches is not a large wound.Looks like the hospital was milking the insurance,300000 baht is a joke.

If you bothered to read the OPs you'd know that he was admitted as an in-patient, needed after care and physiotherapy also.  Hospital rooms are not cheap and there was a lot more to it than just 19 stitches.

[Just Weird]

4 hours ago, SunsetT said:

 

 

....But you are right in that, although they are some of the richest financial institutions in the World, many are also the scum of the Earth in how they do absolutely anything they can to make it as difficult as possible to claim  or wriggle out of paying genuine claims. Also I dont know how they get away with making their small print so difficult to understand that most people cannot understand it.

"...they do absolutely anything they can to make it as difficult as possible to claim  or wriggle out of paying genuine claims".

Doubtless you have some evidence of that daft claim.  Insurance companies in most countries are regulated and if they do what you claim they do (they don't because it would hurt their business, they need people to buy their policies!) it would be all over the media with names mentioned and it isn't.  That is, of course, except for those whinging after making invalid claims that any insurer would reject because, er, they're invalid!

 

Insurers have to comply with their regulators' regulations and that includes making the policy conditions clear and understandable, the clichéd "fine print" doesn't exist.

[siamcrut]

300.000 for 19 stitches and aftercare!?

555

 

[Russell17au]

1 minute ago, siamcrut said:

300.000 for 19 stitches and aftercare!?

555

 

you should really have a good look at the injuries from the first thread about this and you would see that it was not just a simple case of 19 stitches, the injury was a lot more than that, it would have included tendon damage and other muscle damage in the foot, there was not just one laceration there was about 6 cuts that would have included rubbish from the sharks teeth that would have had to be cleaned out of each cut. he would have been in surgery for a while having it treated before they would be able to stitch the wounds

[Just Weird]

8 minutes ago, siamcrut said:

300.000 for 19 stitches and aftercare!?

555

 

...and physio and in-patient costs and medication and hospital room costs and doctors fees...Geez.

[atyclb]

4 hours ago, atyclb said:

 

they may have also repaired some tendons and ligaments and deep wounds may have been closed with multi level sutures but still crazy expensive

https://lacerationrepair.com/techniques/advanced-wound-closure-techniques/layered-closure/

[Megasin1]

300,000 does seem a mite high for what he is in for and to be fair he should have checked his insurance and at least got authorisation after his initial treatment.

I take out annual insurance as I travel al lot, but it does state quite clearly that it's a maximum of 45 days per trip. My daughter has just taken out backpacker insurance which is continual cover for the duration of their trip, however like any long term insurance the cost is quite a bit more than a holiday insurance and therefore requires an equally appropriate period of research before engagement. This falls fairly and squarely on the head of the Norwegian who should have wrestled the sharks in the correct order. I don't agree with some posters who state you shouldn't insure, even though I've never had to use a hospital that warranted the insurance as the bill was always cheaper than the excess, however travellers should be fully aware of what their insurance does cover and how long it will last.

[zaZa9]

12 hours ago, hagler said:

He didn't have an effective travel insurance policy that covered him.

 

Therein lies the issue.

 

A lot of policies are "time limited" .

 

His obviously was.

 

Caveat emptor

I havent read all the other responses - sorry - but its as simple as this.

Most travel insurance policies have a clause stating the period of time whereafter they 'determine'  that a person staying in a single country  is no longer a tourist .

The cheapest ones I looked at specified 60 days.

Many were 90 days.

I ended up selecting 'Nomads World Travel Insurance'  because they CLEARLY stated they  had no time limit  specifications  in any country ...and were competitively priced at about 400 pound sterling.

Just as well. I had was hospitalised in Bkk , and they paid the whole bill of 220k baht with only 3 phone calls.

My only issue was that they were quite insistent I fly back home ( with a nurse in biz class - wherein  hospitals are free  ) as soon as I was released .

[mstevens]

The travel insurance that I get automatically with my credit card clearly states that the policy is limited to 90 days travel outside my home country.  Perfectly fair and reasonable and if I travel for longer I have to pay a supplementary cost.  This is common in travel insurance policies and while it's no doubt disappointing for the Norwegian who will have to pay for the treatment out of his own pocket, this is not a scam as this sort of thing is clearly written in to the policy.  Too many people don't take the time to familiarise themselves with insurance policies which these days, at least in my part of the world, are written in easy to understand English which even a school kid could grasp.

[mstevens]

13 hours ago, malcoml said:

Insurance or not I'm more interested in how 18 stitches can cost a total of 300,000 baht.

The original post says that he was hospitalised for a period.  Bangkok Hospital is a private hospital i.e. a business to make money.  It's widely known that private hospitals in Thailand are no bargain.  Hang out in the Health & Medicine sub forum and you'll see that 300K hospital bills can run up VERY quickly!

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

When will the crowd funding start?

Some hospital charge, 300K for some stitches and pills.

And keep him in for a few days to pump up the bill?

They rushed him to the "best hospital", for who is it the best?

 

 

[jerojero]

Insurance companies will do everything possible not to pay a claim. That's how they stay in lucrative business. Read the fune print several times of any insurance contract. Filled with limitations and exceptions, often general exceptions subject to arbitrary definition by the insurance company of course.

[metisdead]

Baiting posts and the replies have been removed. 

 

Some inflammatory posts have been removed. 

[jacko45k]

I agree with many. In this case I believe it is not the fault of 'the authorities' and it was his reponsibility to have valid insuranace. Everything is always the fault of the 'authorities' these days and a go fund me page or open palm is the response.

 

 

[DieterWiehe]

On 4/30/2018 at 9:33 AM, tracker1 said:

When he returns to Thailand he will be given a " Special Tourist Card " is that like you are one of the lucky ones to have survived an encounter in Thailand ? because many haven't

He said if he ever came back he would give him a "special tourist card". Tell him to shove it where the sun don't shines

[Telly]

18 hours ago, jimn said:

Another one who dosen't understand how annual policies work. If you have a policy for 90 days it dosen't reset when you cross a border or go home. It will be a 90 day maximum per annum not multiple 90 days in the term of the annual policy. 

Sorry Im not clear.

I meant flying over borders.

What an insurance company wants is proof of flight. You don't have to give complete but partial.

I leave it up to you to think devious.

As for uninformed, I sold insurance for years.

[Telly]

17 hours ago, peterb17 said:

Telly

 

Are you really expecting the wonderful  TV members to really believe that you take a flight to keep an insurance policy valid every 90 days ( instead of paying a bit more for a longer policy)

 

Maybe you have confused this thread with visa runs? 

I do take a flight by every 89 day.

My current annual policy costs aud550 for 2 pax.

My new annual policy costs aud250 for 2, they were having a 50% off.

How much cheaper is a budget domestic or international flight. 

Different strokes for different folks

[Peter Denis]

23 hours ago, off road pat said:

Hmm,...My travel insurance covers me and my wife all year round, but only 6 moths in one go abroad, I explain,...we are covered for 6 months when we are in Thailand, if we would fly back to Europe and the next day fly back to Thailand we would be covered for 6 months again. !!!..I have been to the Bangkok Hospital in Hua Hin a few years ago. Stayed 22/23 days. My insurance paid 330.000 Thb without a problem. and repatriated my wife and I to Belgium in Business class.

Don't ask me the name of the insurance, it covers only Belgian Citizen. !!!

Hi, I am a Belgian citizen and although officially residing in Belgium, most of the year I am in Thailand.  So, I would be quite interested which insurance company is offering this (and the annual premium).  Sounds like the ideal solution for me...

 

[Peter Denis]

21 hours ago, Telly said:

It is pretty standard for an annual policy to cover 90 days.

That's why on every 89 day I'm on a flight or crossing the border to keep the policy valid.

Hi Telly,

I take your word for it, that your annual insurance travel policy remains valid as long as you do not extend more than 90 days consecutive abroad. But many insurance policies do not have this 'consecutive' clause and only allow 90 days abroad per year.

Here is my story which might be of some interest for ThaiVisa members interested in travel insurance.

Before leaving my EU country to reside in Thailand I checked several insurance companies' conditions.

I finally decided to take an Annual Travel Insurance with a very well-known one, which was actually quite cheap (less than 100 Euro a year) compared to some of the other options.  However, my Annual travel insurance clearly states that it will only cover 3 months of stay abroad.  And I understand that in case of an accident you have to show (a copy of) your passport to demonstrate that you meet that condition.

So the first 3 months of staying abroad you are insured if an accident happens.  After that period, when you are regularly traveling and they require only a copy of the page with the 'entrance' passport date-stamp of the country where the accident took place (which of course should not be +3 months), that should also pose no problem. 

However, if the insurance company would require a copy of say the last 4 consecutive passport pages to be provided, you could be in trouble (= not covered) if you were more than 3 months abroad since the starting date of the insurance, as the visa stamps would expose this.

So I am presently considering to renew that annual travel insurance when my 3 months abroad have been used.  A small difficulty is that you need to be in your home country to take that insurance, but since I am regularly coming over that should be OK (and of course you can have the insurance started on the date of your choice in the future, to make it back-to-back with 3 month stays abroad). 

 

 

 

 

[flyingfox1]

Insured or not? Everyone should make a point to know before embarking on any adventures , can’t cry wolf after the wolf bit or shark for that matter


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[off road pat]

1 hour ago, Peter Denis said:

Hi, I am a Belgian citizen and although officially residing in Belgium, most of the year I am in Thailand.  So, I would be quite interested which insurance company is offering this (and the annual premium).  Sounds like the ideal solution for me...

 

Every Belgian Knows EUROP ASSISTANCE !!!

[nasa123]

From Norway you have MAX 45 days travel insurance, but you can upgrade 1 week ekstra 10.000 Bath 2 weeks 20.000 Bath. 

[Peter Denis]

6 minutes ago, nasa123 said:

From Norway you have MAX 45 days travel insurance, but you can upgrade 1 week ekstra 10.000 Bath 2 weeks 20.000 Bath. 

With Allianz Classic-Protection (available in Belgium and most other EU Schengen countries), you have 1 full year Travel insurance for approx 4.000 Bath (and it also includes home assistance).

The Allianz insurance conditions are also very broad and generous, so might be useful to check out why such enormous difference. 

[cat handler]

On 30/04/2018 at 9:59 AM, darksidedog said:

If he had an effective travel insurance policy that gave him cover at the time of the incident, that should not matter.

I dont know who comes off looking worse here, the insurance company for wriggling out of paying or the Hua Hin politicians who were very keen to get a photo with him, but now seem to be washing their hands of it, as it might involve lobbing out some cash. They are both missing a big PR opportunity.

 

Why would Politicians pay him money, if he were bitten by a shark anywhere else in the world he wouldn’t be given money by the Goverment or is it just in Thailand they should pay him? Perhaps he should have read his PDS on his Insurance policy and not tried to save a few dollars by getting Travel Insurance instead of Expat Insurance.

[cat handler]

1 hour ago, Peter Denis said:

With Allianz Classic-Protection (available in Belgium and most other EU Schengen countries), you have 1 full year Travel insurance for approx 4.000 Bath (and it also includes home assistance).

The Allianz insurance conditions are also very broad and generous, so might be useful to check out why such enormous difference. 

 

Really, Travel Insurance for 4000 Baht for 12 months, you’re dreaming.

 

25,000 would be a closer figure.

 

secndly Travel Insurance doesn’t cover you for ongoing treatment, only initial treatment and possibly evacuation to your home country if your seriously ill and injured and can’t catch a commercial flight. That’s why it’s far cheaper than Expat Insurance.

[Jomtien Holiday Guy]

If you haven't payd for insurance for covering accidents on the actually day it happend, , then you are of course on selfpayments. Mine Travel insurance cover everything for 2 months, if i want to stay longer, then i have to inform them and pay additional cover, eventhough it's call all year travel insurance. Simple conditions everybody can understand....Can you afford to travel, then you can certainly also pay your insurance...NO PITY FROM ME....