Health insurance mandatory for long-stay foreigners in Thailand

[holy cow cm]

21 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

Good rates for UNDER 66.

 

2. Eligible to apply for the first year coverage from 15 days up to 65 years of age, renewable up to 80 years of age for IPD and up to 70 years of age for OPD

Good rates yes but you open up a potential can of worms authorizing them to investigate all medical records of you. No thanks. That is confidential as they will also pass it on to the Office of the Insurance Commission, and once with them you may be open season for all insurance companies to say no based on your authorization and what possibly could be in them. My medical records shall remain classified and this is not like getting credit card where my stuff is commonly out there.

[johnarth]

I am over 75 cannot get insurance who do I ask if I can stay or go?

I do not understand this the 800.000 baht in the bank is supposed to do this or is that for nothing now?

[alzack]

5 minutes ago, malibukid said:

more money to the "agents"

The perfect Corruption path

[stanleycoin]

16 minutes ago, phutoie2 said:

maybe, so is sunburn and fainting on parade because of no brekkie.

Its court martial too,  most ex mil could tell you that.

Thank you for your input,  Yawn 

 

[alzack]

Just now, johnarth said:

I am over 75 cannot get insurance who do I ask if I can stay or go?

 

you will have to go home mate 

[BritManToo]

29 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

A lot of Canadians (for example) are under the mistaken impression that their healthcare covers them 24/7 no matter

Of course I include Canadians, as the poorer relatives of Americans.

[Melbun]

2 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

No, we all have an ฿800,000 policy in the bank that accepts all the illness accumulated over a lifetime.

Yeh - and after the expensive surgery or treatment you will have nothing to live on. A street bum caught between both worlds. The Thai's won't allow you to use the 800,000 for medical coverage !!!

[Jingthing]

Whenever Imm make an announcement of a change in their 'rules" they should perhaps hire a person that can put it to a format that we can all understand instead of us having to make our own interpretation.Not only English but other languages.They always go off half cocked.Then again we do have Ubon Joe to make sense of it all.

Ubon Joe does not know the details either. There are no Gods posting here.

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[userabcd]

With all the medical exclusions in some of these policies, how are these medical insurances anything other than compulsory extortionate funding of insurance companies and hospitals who will probably be using it as a slush fund to dip into to cover their costs of treating those who cannot afford to pay their hospital bills.

[peterrabbit]

Another nail in the coffin for anyone considering making their home in Thailand.

[The Theory]

It must be just for O-A visa. Those who got no 800,000 in bank or no monthly transfer. 

[eddysmit]

2 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

ITS NOT POSSIBLE FOR FARANGS to skip out of paying major medical bills in Thailand because they will not do any thing major here unless money is payed up front.......

 

The farang deadbeat bill payers is a COMPLETE LIE...

 

But insurance companys love to repeat the lie over and over in hopes of a huge scamming mandatory insurance pay day.....Oink Oink said the pigs at the trough..... 

Yes, it's looking like the Banks are in cohorts with the insurance companies(same thing, and no doubt a lump going to other places) looking for some quick cash, silly really because that's short term thinking, many of us will either not be able to afford the insurance they want or unavailable because of age,and not only will the 800 thousand go from their banks, so would the cash spent on a daily basis.

[eddysmit]

1 minute ago, The Theory said:

It must be just for O-A visa. Those who got no 800,000 in bank or no monthly transfer. 

Is it really, I misunderstood the 'O' visa part then.

[AAArdvark]

1 hour ago, pookiki said:

Do you have the web address?  Please PM me if possible.

They have a facebook page that lists a web address of xxx.net.  It doesn't work but if you replace the .net with .com it will say coming soon.

[rabas]

10 minutes ago, samuttodd said:

I've figured out a workaround for the insurance.   God only knows how much money and time and paperwork will be involved with getting appropriate insurance here "in country."   There are so many variables to consider.

 

I am just going to go to the Embassy and sign an affadavit that I won't get sick or hurt while I am here.   That should work.   I'll be out 1 day for going into bankok and $50 to do the papers.

Just get a signed affidavit that the bearer is already deceased, no longer requires medical insurance or visa. Might pass if the IO is into Thai soaps.

[JDGRUEN]

50 minutes ago, pagallim said:

Again, the article is specific about O-A visas, which can only be obtained external to Thailand, and though not in every case, are usually obtained by people who split their time between their home countries and Thailand, and for whom an extendable 60 day Tourist visa is insufficient for their needs, and don't wish to use an annual extension using the Retirement/Marriage/Dependent options.

I reiterate my comment... the only reason that the O-A was mentioned is that it is a Visa ... Other Long Stays are Extensions based on an original short term 90 day visa (O visa usually).. There is no common sense limiting factor in this news article when uninformed lawmakers are quoted where they zero in on a "Retirement" Visa (O-A) because they are totally unaware that the vast majority of Long Stay Retirement "Visas" are actually Extensions of Stay - One Year.  If and when Immigration draws up the actual police order you can bet good money it will apply to all Visas (O-A, O-X) and all O Extensions of Stay for age 50 and over. 

[AAArdvark]

6 minutes ago, Melbun said:

Yeh - and after the expensive surgery or treatment you will have nothing to live on. A street bum caught between both worlds. The Thai's won't allow you to use the 800,000 for medical coverage !!!

Yes they do.  You use the 800,00 to pay the bill,  You fail your next extension and leave.  BUT the bills are covered.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

5 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

Has anyone obtained health insurance within Thailand? If so, did you have to provide your medical records from your home country or was a medical examination required by the insurer prior to the policy commencing?

 

It probably depends on the individual insurer as to the details...

 

But in general, any new insurance you apply for, they're going to ask you to complete a medical history form that will ask you to detail various medical things going back certain numbers of years. They don't specify in Thailand vs out of Thailand. It's usually "in the past X years" based.

 

Normally, the medical history stuff doesn't go beyond that.... But perhaps, if a person had some big issue, the insurer might ask for some documents to verify that. But I've never run into that kind of request. Normally, they just exclude stuff based on the medical history questionnaire that you fill out.

 

As for the medical exam, again, that depends on the insurer and the age of the applicant when applying. My impression is, a lot of Thai insurers require a medical exam for new applicants once you get up into the retirement years age range.

 

[Mister Fixit]

I'm interested to know just to what extent foreigners have been taking advantage of or abusing Thai government hospitals, as they allege.

 

Does anyone have any more information on this?  Are there published figures anywhere?

 

I have used a few Government and private hospitals on occasion and I pay for my treatment every time, like I assume every Thai does if they don't have some sort of cover.  

 

I have chronic arthritis in both knees and one of my old student's husband is a doctor at the Army hospital.  About 6 years ago, he referred me to his pal, the top guy there for that ailment and they were delighted to see me.  Couldn't have been made more welcome.

 

I was just there yesterday for a checkup and not a murmur about me being a foreigner.  I paid for my X ray and consultation (440 baht per knee) and that was it.  Was I somehow taking something from the Thai people?

[Yeahbutwhytho]

I wonder the total amount alot of older expats spend monthly whilst in Thailand - Thailand is meant to be the destination to live cheap, but it looks like its not so cheap with the run around you have to do - makes you think

So, if someone is spending alot and say stuff you to the rest who want to live cheaply, makes me wonder what kind of debauchery or messed up things they're up to in the land of smiles when they could live in a first world country for the same money? Those sound like the real losers to me ????

[giddyup]

2 minutes ago, terrytrigg said:

brillian news

 

hopefully get rid of a lot of the dead wood.

 

good riddance! 

You aren't bullet proof. Let's see how you fare after a lengthy hospital stay after a couple of major operations.

[The Theory]

13 minutes ago, Melbun said:

Yeh - and after the expensive surgery or treatment you will have nothing to live on. A street bum caught between both worlds. The Thai's won't allow you to use the 800,000 for medical coverage !!!

400,000 is actually for an emergency medical case. That’s why you are not allowed to use it and must be kept in bank all year long. Once you use it for a medical emergency it must be restored, otherwise next extension will not be granted. 

I hope I’m right. 

 

 

[malibukid]

5 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

They need a better insurance solution. This is a slap in the face - really. Immigration will interpret it as anyone who is over 50 with any visa type. In the end the banks keep our money and the insurance Thai companies rape us again.

time to take my money out of the bank.   

[webfact]

Cabinet approves mandatory health insurance for long-stay visas

By The Phuket News

 

Dr Natthawut Prasertsiripong, Chief of the MoPH Department of Health Service Support. Photo: MoPH

 

PHUKET: The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has announced that Cabinet has approved mandatory health insurance as a new requirement for all foreigners staying in the country on one-year Non-Immigrant O-A “visas”, or “permits-to-stay”.

 

Dr Natthawut Prasertsiripong, Chief of the MoPH Department of Health Service Support, following his announcement last Wednesday (May 8 ) confirmed that the Cabinet approved the new requirement on April 2.

 

“Cabinet approved an extra health insurance requirement for foreigners applying for one-year Non-Immigrant O-A visas,” Dr Natthawut said.

 

Full story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/cabinet-approves-mandatory-health-insurance-for-long-stay-visas-71424.php#r5gzdZpp0gouaGES.97

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2019-05-14

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

 

[AAArdvark]

2 minutes ago, JDGRUEN said:

There is no common sense limiting factor

I agree that they probably" mean all long term stays but the common sense factor is that people on long term stays that are not O-A are forced to have large bank deposits which could be used to cover medical expenses (at a cost of next extension).

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

5 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

They need a better insurance solution. This is a slap in the face - really. Immigration will interpret it as anyone who is over 50 with any visa type. In the end the banks keep our money and the insurance Thai companies rape us again.

 

The other thing the OP article doesn't even address is the fact that A LOT of Thai insurers won't write new medical insurance policies for ANYONE, Thai or farang, once a person gets older, with the cutoff ages varying by insurer... Once you get beyond 65 here, there are still options, but the choices get much fewer.

 

[jesimps]

3 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

You will get free NHS treatment if you can show that you have returned to the UK to live there.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 

You'll probably get it anyway. I read recently that the hospitals have given up checking the passports of health tourists. Too much work. I'd imagine a Brit with an NHS number will have no problem bluffing his way in.

[randy723]

is this now the law or is this what they are trying to get passed? does anyone know for sure?

[The Theory]

13 minutes ago, eddysmit said:

Is it really, I misunderstood the 'O' visa part then.

“According to Nattawuth, the new rule applies to both new applicants for the non-immigrant visa (O-A), which offers a stay of up to one year, and those wishing to renew their visa. Each renewal is valid for one year.“

 

I does not mention non-O 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

7 minutes ago, webfact said:

Cabinet approves mandatory health insurance for long-stay visas

By The Phuket News

 

Again, based on the wording of this Phuket News report, they SEEM to be focusing their wrath on retirement visas and extensions -- and no mention at all of marriage-based visas or extensions....

 

But obviously, there's no telling right now how Immigration is likely to enforce this in the future...

 

Although, they did recently set a precedent for treating retirement extensions differently than marriage extensions, when Immigration adopted the new "maintain your Thai bank deposit year-round" rule, and didn't apply that same concept to marriage extensions at all.