Thai Tourism: "Half of foreigners" don't pay their hospital bills; director points finger at three nationalities

[melvinmelvin]

1 minute ago, GalaxyMan said:

It is for a Thai traveling the EU. Just went through it with my wife when we made a trip to Portugal and Spain. They have to have PROOF of €30,000 worth of insurance.

well, the post I commented didn't say anything about Thais

 

fair enough, a Thai applying for a Schengen visa to visit the Schengen area must have insurance

don't know how it is for European countries outside Schengen, like UK for example

 

a Thai living in say Sweden, does, to my knowledge, not need insurance in order to visit Italy

 

[BestB]

We want more tourists , we need tourists , tourists are a burden. Tourists are bad. Put up airport tax by 5 baht and it will cover all the losses. Instead of whining 

[MrMo]

17 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Result = almost no tourists.

 

I do wonder how the 9,000 foreigners treated over the last year causes 448 Million in bills to be unpaid.

Even if we're talking 10x the normal billing for foreigners.

 

Very easy for the 9,000 foreigners to collectively cause a 448 Million Baht bill.   

That is an average of Baht 50,000 a person.   Less than GBP 2,000.   I had a Baht 150,000 surgery bill less than 2 years back (covered by insurance) in a State hospital.  Had there been complications the bill would have been higher.   No private Thai hospital was quoting less than a quarter of a million for the job. 

(And a UK hospital would have been close to 10x higher.)

[Langsuan Man]

And pray tell , what does tourists not paying their hospital bills have to do with requiring Non Immigrant O-A Visa holders to have mandatory Thai health insurance ?

 

They continually insist that we can't be tourists so stop treating us like we are 

 

Make the tourists, who the government admits are the problem, have mandatory travel insurance before a tourist visa is issued, problem solved

[BuckBee]

Up airport tax to 150Bt at it cover some new silk shirts for Buck Banana and some new watches for fatty .

 

I would say half these losses got be specific hospital incompetence

Pretty much all hospitals I seen leave you die at the atm if no money comes out .

To think they letting thousands walk/sneak out with unpaid bills is simply not that believable, huge part of this has to be specific hospital incompetence or perhaps internal corruption ...

Edited November 30, 2019 by BuckBee

[mikebell]

Over the years I have spent millions in Thai hospitals for a sick wife, two sick step-daughters, a sick M-i-L & F-i-L and a sick girlfriend. (Not simultaneously) All Thai.

[melvinmelvin]

12 minutes ago, BuckBee said:

Up airport tax to 150Bt at it cover some new silk shirts for Buck Banana and some new watches for fatty .

 

I would say half these losses got be specific hospital incompetence

Pretty much all hospitals I seen leave you die at the atm if no money comes out .

To think they letting thousands walk/sneak out with unpaid bills is simply not that believable, huge part of this has to be specific hospital incompetence or perhaps internal corruption ...

or maybe the reports of these losses are not true at all

Edited November 30, 2019 by melvinmelvin

[thailand49]

What is missing is what are these other countries doing when tourist don't pay their bill?  In Phuket for example if injuries are coming from these rentals maybe there isn't enough oversight in providing safety in their rentals and find a way to improve or have them pay into a fund. As for the animals especially the amount of dogs running around no ownership time to get serious.

 

My comments aren't to give tourist or expat in not paying their bills they should but Thailand needs to look in the mirror when they past laws that they can charge higher prices for foreigner that is just plain wrong. In a country who seem to pride themselves as " land of smiles " seem to do and say everything to make visits and stay here a nightmare at times to take that smile away.

 

At times like other countries the lost is just part of of doing  business.  I wonder what other countries are doing to address the problem instead of pointing the finger.

 

 

[fxe1200]

I just do not believe article:

"Half of foreigners" don't pay their hospital bills;

 

more like fake news to me.

[RBOP]

Certainly this is fake news from a certain Phuket hospital director that's been spewing this claim for many years. The director and hospital should be seriously audited. 

[JimHuaHin]

More xenophobia?

 

A partial solution to the hospital bill problem is easy, but maybe not in Thailand - unless in the case of a life threatening emergency, before seeing medical staff the foreign patient must show his/her passport; the hospital then records the passport details; the foreign patient must also show homeland photo ID, which is also recorded.  If the patient leaves without the medical bill being paid, the immigration/tourist police are notified; hopefully, the patient is apprehended as he/she passes through passport control when attempting to leave Thailand.  Pay up, or go to prison.

[Vacuum]

16 hours ago, ravip said:

I hope this countries goes into a deep economic slowdown it never comes out of.

Where would the poor from the 'developed' world come to retire, then?

When the "deep economic slowdown" occurs in Thailand and 1$=55 baht, they'll swarm the country.

[rexall]

18 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

How to deal with this issue:

 

1. Add 100 Baht to each plane ticket.

 

OR

 

2. Make it difficult, bureaucratic, nonsensical, stupid and unintelligible in order to make every visitor angry.

 

Which do you think will be chosen?

 

 

I don't understand what all the controversy is about. As Samui Bodoh says, just add a surcharge to the plane ticket or the visa, maybe pro rata based on the number of days staying in the Kingdom.  What's the big whoop? Do you think vast numbers of tourists will decline paying a few hundred extra baht in favor of going to a country where they are not covered and can rip off the hospital?  The problem of long-stays is a separate issue. It is more complicated because the relatively insignificant costs for two weeks of coverage more of an issue when you extend them to 52 weeks for an annual policy.  

[fred110]

Don't treat people who don't pay up front.

[FinChin67]

My experience in China. On the way to the hospital in an ambulance I was asked to pay, in cash, the fare. It was CNY 250,- Once I arrived to the hospital I was pushed on a gurney straight to cashier. I needed to give my credit card and they took a hefty amount as a deposit (checked that the card works). After operation I was instructed right away to pay the balance. As in this hospital was only places at a corridor for recovery (in my case needed 14 days in tubes) I asked that I am moved to other hospital. No ploblem!! Ambulance ordered, paid in advance and off we went to next hospital. Straight to cashier, deposit in and got my own room. Doctors checked, gave medicine etc. and all well. Next morning also but after noon nobody showed up. I rang the bell and then comes doctor - with invoices in his hands!! - to meet me. "Your deposit run out, you need to go to cashier to pay, then we continue your treatment". I said it's a bit difficult with all the tubes and stuff to go down so can he go and swipe my card. No, can not do. I asked my secretary to come to the hospital and pay. Once the bill was paid downstairs all the doctors and nurses run to my room to give medicine, change dressing etc.. I just told them to stop and say that I'm not going to stay in this <deleted>hole where I am treated like commodity and off I went with all the IV's, tubes etc. to my car (I had driver that time) which was waiting downstairs with my secretary. After signing "release" papers I was on my way to Army hospital and the shock on the peoples faces when I walked in was priceless... Again through cashier but got my room and good service for the next 12 days or so. Yes, payment was there daily too.

 

I paid everything in cash or by card and got it back from my insurance later.

However, the things I witnessed nobody would believe. Like one unlucky fellow who did not have the money to pay and was pushed and left on the street...

I never thought what would have happened if I was unconscious...

[harrycallahan]

How many are motorbike accidents?

 

Insurance won't cover the unlicenced riders i.e. most of them who come off. Even a home country license isn't acceptable on its own.

[mickey rat]

Maybe the tourists but obviously retirement visa holders would have no where to run as the authorities know exactly where you are at all times. 

[Naamblar2014]

18 hours ago, cmsally said:

Simply make it compulsory for those hiring motorbikes and doing watersports to purchase appropriate insurance when they hire the service in question. "attack by animals" ??!! don't know what to think about this one , is it by any chance stray dogs? In which case it is the municipalities job to sort out.

Exactly what I was thinking,  with a small edit.  Insurance should be included when participating in water sports or hiring a motorcycle. Not additional.   If you are licensed here the compulsory insurance already covers you for personal injury hospital bills I believe.

[Dr Rodrigues Pereira]

Episode One : a couple of years ago, I wanted to cement a tooth crown that had fallen out . After responding to an absolutely inutil written quest at the front desk of Bangkok's  Christian Hospital, I was led to the dentist's office. I was then greated by a nurse who wanted to take a blood test and monitor my blood pressure . Given the absurdity of the request, I told to the nurse : " please get me my collegue, since I am a pathologist and I don't see a reason to do this type of exams for cementing a tooth ! " She went through all type of colours and I finally had a talk with my fellow Dentist MD. She, too, blushed and just tried to say that "those were the normal procedures". I am sure that you can imagine where I told her to shove the "procedures" ...

 

Episode Two : Last year, the young son of a friend of mine felt ill while visiting Phuket. On my phone talk with his girlfiend , I was absolutely sure it was an appendicictis crisis. An urgent one !!! But my dear coleagues would not opperate , unless he provided a 200.000 THB deposit. So I caught the phone , talked to our Portuguese Ambassador in Bkk and had than a phone call with the surgeon, who barely spoke English. I I just told him that I would sue him AND the hospital if my friend's son would die because he didn't do the appendicectomy, a procedure that takes 20 minutes ... He did it , but the hospital's bill was 400.000 THB. This time, I sent an email to the Minister of Health , showing my concern for this type of ripp-off. The next day, the bill was reduced to 80.000 THB !!! What type of medicine are you practising i the LOS ???

[Gene1960]

8 hours ago, Selatan said:

Good to see Malaysians not among the top 3 nationalities that didn't pay their Thai hospital bills. After all, Malaysia is ranked second highest source of tourists to Thailand.

 

No point for Malaysians to be treated in Thailand anyway, unless it is an emergency. Public hospitals in Malaysia charge as low as 1 ringgit for consultation plus medicines and 3 ringgit per day for a 3rd class ward.

Interesting. What’s about the foreign  people, retired in Malaysia?

[Sergeant]

Is it possible that the Thai people not pay the Hospital prices too. Could the hospital not understand openness in their charges? I have seen a Hospital change its system to inform the sick person the cost before operation, A Thirty second toe nail clip for $12,000 while another hospital charge $150 Baht.  No secret which hospital I choose?

[Isaan sailor]

If it cuts Chinese low budget tourists by only 10%—I’m totally in favor.

[nong38]

This is a topic with many forks in the road, how many ASEAN's are in the figures for example? Most ex pats I speak to who have told me they have had to go to hospital tell me how much it cost them, so I assume they paid and my experience of Thai hospitals is that I am taken to the cashier to pay the bill! If that is not happening you cannot blame some for doing a runner if you cannot bother to collect the amount due, administration and following protocol is pretty basic.

If it the expat/tourist that is the real problem then it is likely to be the hot spots where these people are which I would guess would be Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai and the like this is where any problems are likely to show up and should be easy to identify how big the problem really is or is an excuse to drain more out of the non Thais?

[BestB]

Considering all the official and unofficial double to triple charging of foreigners , amount of losses claimed in actual fact is only half or a third . And considering that the other 50% who do pay, have been double to triple charged , there is no loss. 

[Neeranam]

20+ years ago, I was wheeled out Nonthavej hospital after an operation to the atm machine. They were obviously scared I was not going to pay. As it happened, I didn't have enough in my account and had to call a friend. 

[JHacker]

18 hours ago, darksidedog said:

While I agree wholeheartedly that anyone who uses a hospital should pay their bill, I think a major point is being overlooked. Tourism generates billions of dollars for the economy. Tourism is also by all accounts other than TAT in sharp decline. That number may well reduce further if every tourist has to pay out for an insurance policy, which may or may not cover problems they encounter. Maybe they should weigh the 448 million baht against the potential tens of billions they might lose.

Also, the hospitals seem to greatly overcharge foreigners! A close friend (American), was hospitalized here recently, and because he was comatose from medication, another (American) friend who also lives here, and has a business, sent his (Thai) employees to the hospital to pick up the bills for transmission to the U.S insurance company. The Thai employees were shocked at the size of the bills and told their boss that the bills were vastly inflated, but because the insurer, and patient were foreign, nothing could be done!

[Momofarang]

18 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

2. Make it difficult, bureaucratic, nonsensical, stupid and unintelligible in order to make every visitor angry.

They don't have to "make it", this is the way Thailand IS.

[jlwilliamsjr18]

Hazardous and high risk tourism contributes greatly to injuries and health issues.  As for health cost, when the Thai-Gov. decides to let long term residents buy into the national health scheme, then some progress will be made. Please don't claim foreigners can't be on the national health plan.  Go to any government hospital in agricultural areas, and take note of the Burmese and others with health cards.  

[Number 6]

There is no solution. These people are skipping out because they've no money in general, no money on hand to pay the bill.

 

International insurance will no pay direct and even if it did it would take months to haggle over the bill. Especially with sketchy international travel insurance policies and companies.

 

The best solution if it really troubles is to disallow French, Russian and Chinese - but we all know what splendid tourists they are and how much money they are spending here.

 

The govt adding b100 to outbound flights which could be pooled for hospitals to pull from is imo best idea. But of course it will be plundered because that's the nature of the Thai.

 

The tiered payment system I find positively revolting. The logic behind a tourist paying less than a local expatriate is dumbfounding.

[Number 6]

5 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

20+ years ago, I was wheeled out Nonthavej hospital after an operation to the atm machine. They were obviously scared I was not going to pay. As it happened, I didn't have enough in my account and had to call a friend. 

Myself as well. After release for dengue I was taken directly to an ATM. I always pay my bills and only been a bit in debt a few times in my life. I was <deleted>.