Another major Thai insurance company stops offering Covid-19 cover

[Moonlover]

17 hours ago, kimamey said:

I can't find it now but there were comments a couple of days ago about this on here. There was some suspicion that this wasn't true since insurance companies would normally just pay medical expenses direct to the hospital but there were replies with scans of documents to show some pay out direct to those insured. I don't know if this was for medical expenses or just for having covid.

 

The thing that worries me is will this make it harder to get covid insurance? Maybe these are just companies that have underestimated the risk and so their premiums are too low or they are paying out when they shouldn't. I agree the second isn't that likely but the first is. Hopefully the international companies are more stable even if that means more expensive.

Yes you're right. I was involved in that conversation as I was also surprised that any insurance company would write a policy that would pay the sufferer rather than the medical provider. But then it dawned on me that Covid treatment, for Thais is free, so of course the payout would go to the patient!

 

Of course when those policies were being sold, one would have been hard pressed to find a Covid sufferer to go and catch the disease from, but nowadays, with the disease being rife, it should be quite easy, so the risk to the insurers has increased dramatically. 

 

Normal Covid policies which pay for medical treatment are unaffected and are still available, but the cost has risen substantially. When I bought my policy just 3 months ago, it was 850 THB for up 1 million THB cover. The same policy now costs 2,179 THB with a ceiling of only 300,000 THB.

 

So glad I got in when I did. 

 

 

[kimamey]

15 hours ago, Moonlover said:

Yes you're right. I was involved in that conversation as I was also surprised that any insurance company would write a policy that would pay the sufferer rather than the medical provider. But then it dawned on me that Covid treatment, for Thais is free, so of course the payout would go to the patient!

 

Of course when those policies were being sold, one would have been hard pressed to find a Covid sufferer to go and catch the disease from, but nowadays, with the disease being rife, it should be quite easy, so the risk to the insurers has increased dramatically. 

 

Normal Covid policies which pay for medical treatment are unaffected and are still available, but the cost has risen substantially. When I bought my policy just 3 months ago, it was 850 THB for up 1 million THB cover. The same policy now costs 2,179 THB with a ceiling of only 300,000 THB.

 

So glad I got in when I did. 

 

 

There are policies that pay out on death or loss of limbs or eyesight but those are one off payments. The costs of loss of earnings, funeral expenses and medical expenses are slightly different so I can see why that might be a problem for insurers with non Thai policy holders but as you say things are slightly different for Thais. Having said that I'm married to a government employee so in normal circumstances I would get medical treatment based on that but it seems they've excluded covid.

[Albert Zweistein]

On 7/17/2021 at 11:17 AM, LazySlipper said:

You write with so many 'acronyms' that I find it hard to follow you. 

 

U GT My 5?

lol

HQ = headquarters, JV = joint venture. I still think you are right, should be a ban on using acronyms/abbreviations. A.T.Y.V.M.