US health insurance

[dlvinthai]

I retired a couple of years ago from the US government and have federal government health insurance that covers a lot, up to USD $1 million.  Can this be used to satisfy the Thai requirement of $100k health insurance, or would I need to buy a Thai health insurance policy?  I am going to apply for a retirement visa, although I could easily apply for a marriage visa. 

[ubonjoe]

What visa are you applying for or are you trying to meet the requirements for a certificate of entry at a Thai embassy or official consulate.

Applying for a non-o visa based upon marriage to a Thai may be your best choice. That only would require 90 days of coverage for covid 19 insurance for a certificate of entry. One option for it is this one. https://covid19.tgia.org/

 

[Pib]

Don't confuse the medical insurance requirement to get and maintain a visa/extension of stay with the $100K COVID insurance requirement to get a COE.   To different animals.

 

While your US govt insurance should suffice to get a OA Retirement Visa when it comes time to start getting retirement "extension of stay" from that OA Visa your govt insurance will not meet extension requirements.  Although your US govt medical insurance is many times better than Thai insurance you must have Thai medical insurance from one of the Thai insurance providers listed at https://covid19.tgia.org/.   And after age 75 it will be hard to impossible and very expensive to maintain medical coverage with any Thai insurance company.

 

The Thai medical insurance requirement for extension of OA Visa's which started Oct 2019 turned an attractive visa into a ugly and expensive visa only suitable for certain folks over 50.   That's why so many folks are trying to change from an OA visa to a O visa....an O Visa does not have the medical insurance requirement.

 

Go with the O Visa for Marriage....you can switch to an O Visa retirement later on if desired.  

 

Back to the $100K COVID insurance.  That's a separate requirement right now just to get a COE for Thailand.  If your current medical insurance specifically states it provides a minimum of $100K coverage for COVID then it should suffice; otherwise, you'll have to buy a separate COVID policy to get your foot into Thailand right now....until the COVID pandemic goes away...until Thailand drops that $100K COVID insurance requirement.

 

[lopburi3]

I was not aware of a 1 million limitation of federal health insurance?  You might want to change to FEPBlueCross next month if going to be living overseas as they are quite good for foreign claims and no limitation.

[Max69xl]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

Don't confuse the medical insurance requirement to get and maintain a visa/extension of stay with the $100K COVID insurance requirement to get a COE.   To different animals.

 

While your US govt insurance should suffice to get a OA Retirement Visa when it comes time to start getting retirement "extension of stay" from that OA Visa your govt insurance will not meet extension requirements.  Although your US govt medical insurance is many times better than Thai insurance you must have Thai medical insurance from one of the Thai insurance providers listed at https://covid19.tgia.org/.   And after age 75 it will be hard to impossible and very expensive to maintain medical coverage with any Thai insurance company.

 

The Thai medical insurance requirement for extension of OA Visa's which started Oct 2019 turned an attractive visa into a ugly and expensive visa only suitable for certain folks over 50.   That's why so many folks are trying to change from an OA visa to a O visa....an O Visa does not have the medical insurance requirement.

 

Go with the O Visa for Marriage....you can switch to an O Visa retirement later on if desired.  

 

Back to the $100K COVID insurance.  That's a separate requirement right now just to get a COE for Thailand.  If your current medical insurance specifically states it provides a minimum of $100K coverage for COVID then it should suffice; otherwise, you'll have to buy a separate COVID policy to get your foot into Thailand right now....until the COVID pandemic goes away...until Thailand drops that $100K COVID insurance requirement.

 

"While your US govt insurance should suffice to get a O-A Retirement Visa". 

Not correct, the requirements for the health insurance is same when applying for an O-A Visa in your home country and when extending it in Thailand.If someone is lucky enough to persuade their insurance company at home to sign the foreign insurance policy certificate = 3 signatures from the top brass, they can use the insurance. I think I've read one post from one guy who succeeded. Most companies simply refuses to sign it. 

[Pib]

I was assuming he can get his insurance company to sign the form.

[Peter Denis]

24 minutes ago, Pib said:

I was assuming he can get his insurance company to sign the form.

The difficulty to get the Foreign Insurance Certificate properly filled in and signed is 3-fold:

1 - The Certificate refers to thai legislation, and foreign insurers are not familiar with such legislation and therefore reluctant to sign the document (their juridiscal department will often strongly advise against it);

2 - The requirements to be met are at least 400K in-patient coverage and at least 40K out-patient coverage.  These are ridiculously low tressholds and most Western insurance-policies provide coverage from 10 to more than 100 times more, but they often do not specify that ridiculous 49K out-patient coverage and hence do not meet that particular requirement;

3 - The Certificate mentions 2 director-signatures as required.  Good luck with that one, but actually it is a bad Thai translation because 2 signatures from insurer representatives (e.g. your insurer customer rep and an insurer sales rep) suffices.

>> When you have a good personal relationship with your insurer rep, and you explain him the need and background of why you need this Foreign Insurance Certificate, it will be no problem having the FIC properly filled-in and signed.

Some reports of Non Imm O-A Visa applicants who succesfully did it, so it is not impossible.

[dlvinthai]

Thank you to everyone for the useful advice.  While I don't have BC/BS, I have been thinking of changing to that in the upcoming open season.  Again, thanks to everybody!