covid travel insurance for over 80 years old

[bunnydrops]

I have a friend in his 80s that wants to leave Thailand in a few months and then return before his extension is due to renew. I told him that I thought I saw someone had posted on this site a company that had a flat rate for 30,90, and one year plans. I have done a search but can't seem to find it. I seem to remember it being around 2 months ago, but in the time of covid, time seems to have less meaning. Anyone know of a covid insurance like I am speaking of?

[Peter Denis]

> https://covid19.tgia.org/

This is the insurance set-up by the TGIA (Thai Insurance Lobby) and it ONLY covers covid-19 treatment with a coverage of 100.000 US $ to meet the CoE insurance requirement.

The premium is irrespective of age (crazy!), and is only based on your nationality and the intended period of stay.  Which means that a 25 year old American pays approx 3 times as much as a 90 year old Australian for the same period of coverage.

Be aware that this 'intended period of stay' is to be interpreted as the number of days your permission to stay will provide you, which is dependent on the Visa on which you will return or the remaining period of your permission to stay when returning on a Re-Entry Permit protected permission to stay.  So even if your friend intends to stay 'indefinitely', he should only buy the insurance for the permission to stay period that he will be stamped in on entry.

[bunnydrops]

9 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

> https://covid19.tgia.org/

This is the insurance set-up by the TGIA (Thai Insurance Lobby) and it ONLY covers covid-19 treatment with a coverage of 100.000 US $ to meet the CoE insurance requirement.

The premium is irrespective of age (crazy!), and is only based on your nationality and the intended period of stay.  Which means that a 25 year old American pays approx 3 times as much as a 90 year old Australian for the same period of coverage.

Be aware that this 'intended period of stay' is to be interpreted as the number of days your permission to stay will provide you, which is dependent on the Visa on which you will return or the remaining period of your permission to stay when returning on a Re-Entry Permit protected permission to stay.  So even if your friend intends to stay 'indefinitely', he should only buy the insurance for the permission to stay period that he will be stamped in on entry.

Thanks, I think that is the one I must have seen

[rupert the bear]

i was going to suggest an option but mr denis puts it extremely well i suggest you follow his advice

[PGSan]

21 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

The premium is irrespective of age (crazy!),

What is crazy about this?  

[UncleMhee]

16 minutes ago, PGSan said:

21 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

The premium is irrespective of age (crazy!),

What is crazy about this?  

Because it's alledged the elderly are more susceptible to  Covid, yet they only pay the same as a 25 y.o.  Greater risk, higher premiums; isn't that how all insurance works??  They certainly won't let me pay the premium of a 25 y.o. on health insurance; irrespective.of whether or not I'm in better health.......

[Peter Denis]

34 minutes ago, PGSan said:

What is crazy about this?  

Insurance premiums are based on statistics and risk.

That's why e.g. health-insurance becomes increasingly more expensive to subscribe to when getting older (as the chance that you would make a claim becomes higher the older you get).

So from an insurer point of view it is 'crazy' not to take the age of the applicant into consideration for this covid-19 insurance.  A simple look at the statistics, shows that the risk of severe complications or even death as result of a covid-19 infection, is many times higher for the elderly than for young or middle-aged people. 

However, the premium of the TGIA covid-19 only insurance is only based on the period of coverage (obviously the longer you are covered, the higher the premium) and on what they consider high-risk countries (e.g. a US citizen is considered more risky than an Australian citizen).  The latter is actually also a nonsense criterion because after 14 days in Thailand, that 'country of origin' criterion is not relevant anymore.

As I wrote > a 25 year-old American will pay approx 3 times more for that TGIA insurance as a 90-year old Australian.  So the young American will be able to subscribe for a much cheaper insurance with a normal insurance company that correctly considers that his risk is low and thus can charge a low premium to cover that risk.  While the 90-year old Australian will probably not find any other insurer that will allow him to subscribe to their policies, and if they do the premium will be very high.  As a result, all those that are not insurable by their regular insurers, because of high age or pre-existing conditions will make use of the TGIA insurance.  And so the premium for that policy will be 'cheap' vis-a-vis the risk for elderly applicants, but it will be highly exaggerated for 'regular' applicants (e.g. people in the age bracket 25-50).

Edited January 19, 2021 by Peter Denis

[sandyf]

21 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

Insurance premiums are based on statistics and risk.on what they consider high-risk countries

 

(e.g. a US citizen is considered more risky than an Australian citizen).  The latter is actually also a nonsense criterion because after 14 days in Thailand, that 'country of origin' criterion is not relevant anymore.

Exactly, but a narrow minded perspective on risk.

It is covid insurance so the first 14 days is the greatest period of risk and country of origin would be a significant consideration, virtually every day the government are reporting cases in quarantine.

With the infection rates of 74,160 per million for US and 1120 per million for Australia that would make a risk factor of about 70 to 1. Similar ratio on deaths is about 35 to 1.

If 3 times as many US citizens were arriving as opposed to Australians, exposure would be 3 times greater.

It is not surprising that taking everything into account and even with the age factor there is a difference in premium, a penalty of poor covid management by western governments.

[Marknreston]

I wonder if having the Pfizer vaccine will obviate the need for Covid insurance.   HAHA....just kidding...I know the answer....TIT

[RichardColeman]

I have to ask what makes it so essential for an octogenarian to travel during a pandemic effecting old people and is it worth delaying it to later in the year when hopefully life is better

[onebir]

Even the differences in premiums by country seem a bit weird (all 1 year):

Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Israel, Jamaica: 14k

Indonesia, Ireland, Philippines, Korea, Sri Lanka, Canada, India: 23k

UK, France, USA: 43k

 

Also a 1 year premium ~ 2x 180 days. With people getting vaccinated, in 180 days Covid should be way less of a problem. (Especially for people who have been vaccinated, but get no discount.)

 

[elgenon]

19 hours ago, UncleMhee said:

Because it's alledged the elderly are more susceptible to  Covid, yet they only pay the same as a 25 y.o.  Greater risk, higher premiums; isn't that how all insurance works??  They certainly won't let me pay the premium of a 25 y.o. on health insurance; irrespective.of whether or not I'm in better health.......

I assume they determined they could make so much money they could do this.