Pregnant / Health Insurance

[pilgrim2505]

Dear forum,

I have asked for advice on hospitals in Thailand / Pattaya and received some positive and interesting feed back.

I am now interested to see if anyone has delivered a baby and used private medical insurance to pay for it, as my finance is pregnant I am looking at covering as many bases as possible.

Any experiences or advice on THIS matter would be greatly received.

Pilgrim

[samran]

I am assuming (but it isn't clear) if you she/you are already insured?

in my experience insurance won't cover you if your wife is already pregnant (for any pregancy related costs) and won't have covered you anyway unless you took out the insurance at least 3-6 months before she became pregant.

I've used insurance here in Thailand (bog standard work one though Siam Commerical New York Life through a former employer here in BKK) which covered up to 45K worth of pregancy, which they paid without blinking. We paid upfront to Samitivej and the insurance company re-imbursed us.

For our next bub...we are planning just to pay upfront. Pregancy only seems to be covered by the high end expat ortientated policies (eg NZI Insurance), as an additional cost to the already expensive 'base' premium. You are looking at at least 20-30K if I recall correctly in premium alone just for pregancy coverage.

Given that 'packages' are available rom most hospitals for pregancy, there is absolutely no need in my book to have any insurance to cover the bog standard materinty costs, though it is always wise to have insurance to cover your wife for any medical emergencies which may happen.

[TanjaB]

When I found out I was pregnant I contacted my Insurance Company (BUPA Thailand) to see if I could upgrade my package to add maternity cover. They told me that 1) you can't add it if you are already pregnant, and 2) my husband and I would have to be insured together on the same cover to be able to add maternity (my husband is insured with AIA through work), so for us it would not have been an option anyway.

Edited May 6, 2007 by TanjaB

[alleypanda]

She has to be insured before she got pregnant. I am on bupa intl they covered it all.

[gavstah]

She has to be insured before she got pregnant. I am on bupa intl they covered it all.

As far as a normal pregnancy and delivery goes, it's so inexpensive here compared to the US/Europe that it may make more sense to just pay cash.

My wife just gave birth (healthy baby girl - yeay!) here in Pattaya (Pattaya-Bangkok Hospital) one month ago. Delivery by c-section, three days in hospital, total came to 39k baht. We had opted for a "baby package" offered by the hospital. The earlier you go in during the pregnancy and sign up for the package, the less it is. (we started going to Pattaya-BKK about month number four).

Total including prenatal visits (ultrasounds, checkups, etc) wasn't over 50k.

To top it off, one week after we came home the hospital sent two nurses around as a courtesy to check up on how mom and baby were doing. No extra charge.

Speaking of insurance for Mom and baby, we just got a quote for 42k baht/year for mom and baby in-patient and out-patient coverage. Does this seem normal? Can anyone recommend a solid health insurance company here in Thailand?

[astral]

My Thai wife and children are with BUPA Blue Cross and I have no complaints about the service.

They handle the bills directly with the hospitals.

There are various levels of cover, we are on the Ruby Plan, which is I think is

more than enough for cover in Thailand.

[Neeranam]

We had a baby recently on the 30baht scheme - great service.

I had thought of using my insurance, the simple "prakan sangkom" for my wife(Thai). If your wife is Thai, go for the free one.

[think_too_mut]

She has to be insured before she got pregnant. I am on bupa intl they covered it all.

She has to be insured before pregnancy with 2 things in fine print:

- they have to be insured together for 2 years plus before pregnancy (have to join the fund at the same minute)

- they have to be legally married.

Then, insurance would cover up to 60K baht.

Top package, can't remember exact figures now, was 27K per month.

Those 2 years of insurance for 2 would have eaten 15 times that.

That is how BUPA lady explained to us 4 years ago, in their reception room at Convent Road, with cold tea and cookies at the table.