Appropriate Health Insurance Coverage

[atpeace]

I know this is hard to answer.  We all have different needs and savings/income.  Is 3 million enough coverage for Asean countries for a very healthy 54 yo.  What is your max coverage?

[Kwasaki]

Do a search if I were you.

Plenty thread on this. 

[atpeace]

1 minute ago, Kwasaki said:

Do a search if I were you.

Plenty thread on this. 

Did but no results.  The search pulls up mostly unrelated info.  

[bkk6060]

I would say 3 million b is decent coverage here.

[Kwasaki]

28 minutes ago, atpeace said:

Did but no results.  The search pulls up mostly unrelated info.  

Well if you have 3m to put aside for health I would say that's plenty but take care of yourself and have annual check ups. 

 

Edited August 17, 2021 by Kwasaki

[CharlieH]

3 million what ? Baht, € £ , $

 

Depends on your lifestyle, one motorcycle accident or any vehicular smash and (baht) that may not touch whats needed.

 

 

MOVED to Insurance forum.

[brewsterbudgen]

30 million baht (with Luma).

[atpeace]

2 hours ago, CharlieH said:

3 million what ? Baht, € £ , $

 

Depends on your lifestyle, one motorcycle accident or any vehicular smash and (baht) that may not touch whats needed.

 

 

MOVED to Insurance forum.

I assume it depends where in Thailand but even in Bangkok I doubt 99% of accidents result in bills exceeding 2.5 million.  Could be wrong but have had some terrible accidents in Thailand.  In both cases, I was taken to public hospitals which I think is the norm.  Regardless, I was not coherent enough to argue.

 

-The first was in Chiang Mai and spent 2 weeks at the hospital. Punctured lung and broken bones.  Great experience -50,000 baht 15 years ago - relevant?

 

-Second in Petchabun 5 years ago- 2 week in intensive care and 4 weeks in total.  4-5 MRI's, punctured lung, broken bones, and my internal organs were a mess.  110,000 baht

 

Granted these were public hospitals and the one in Petchabun was not pleasant.  I had no choice.  Doctors in the USA agreed with the doctors in Petchabun that air vac or ambulance transport wasn't an option for the first 2 weeks.

 

Below are some prices in US dollars

- source: Pacific Prime Thailand

 

Bypass surgery 15,000

Heart valve replacement17,200

Hip replacement17,000

Knee replacement14,000

Gastric bypass16,800

Cataract surgery (per eye)1,800

Spinal fusion9,500

 

This is why I started this thread.  I think I'm missing something in my conclusion that 3 mil is enough.

 

Edited August 17, 2021 by atpeace

[atpeace]

2 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

30 million baht (with Luma).

Beyond my budget but would sure eliminate worry.  Assume you travel out of country quite often?

[brewsterbudgen]

6 minutes ago, atpeace said:

Beyond my budget but would sure eliminate worry.  Assume you travel out of country quite often?

That's the extent of the annual cover - it's less than $1 million.  The premium for my wife and kid is around 50,000 baht a year for both of them.  I think it's fairly standard.  They do a more expensive policy which has cover for 64 million baht.

[CharlieH]

There is a HUGE difference in 3m baht and 3 mil $  (32x) and you still havnt answered what you are talking about ?

 

As for your prices, you are assuming relatively minori ssues,  and of course, lets hope thats all it is. BUT, what if like someone on this forum, your accident result in you being paraplegic ! Where do you think your 3 mil (baht) is going to get you ? Worse case scenario agreed, but thats whar Insurance is for isnt it.

 

You have had several spills already so you are not that lucky it woukd seem. Get the max you can afford, thats better than low or none.

[atpeace]

11 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

There is a HUGE difference in 3m baht and 3 mil $  (32x) and you still havnt answered what you are talking about ?

 

As for your prices, you are assuming relatively minori ssues,  and of course, lets hope thats all it is. BUT, what if like someone on this forum, your accident result in you being paraplegic ! Where do you think your 3 mil (baht) is going to get you ? Worse case scenario agreed, but thats whar Insurance is for isnt it.

 

You have had several spills already so you are not that lucky it woukd seem. Get the max you can afford, thats better than low or none.

Ok, I think you feel I'm arguing with you.  Not the case. You went through everything I stated and from the first paragraph to the last and made some odd comments.

 

Answers to your questions or additional info:

* 3 mil baht

* Relatively minor injuries - 2 weeks intensive care and my family was told it was 50 -50 I would survive.   4 weeks in total in Petchabun hospital and another 2 in Chiang Mai.

 

Just trying to have a constructive conversation.  If I offended you, sorry.

 

[topt]

On 8/17/2021 at 8:05 PM, atpeace said:

4-5 MRI's,

I know you said you were taken to a "public" hospital - lucky or unlucky not sure.

For example the cost of the MRIs alone at a private hospital in Pattaya would have set you back most of that 110k baht and 2 weeks in intensive care I shudder to think.........

 

Saying that 3m baht coverage is a lot better than nothing which seems to be the case for many here..........

 

[Dart12]

On 8/17/2021 at 3:58 PM, Kwasaki said:

Do a search if I were you.

Plenty thread on this. 

I've known exactly what I've wanted to find in here with keywords even...

 

It's almost impossible to find anything when searching

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

Some insurers provide a lifetime limit and some provide an annual limit. Usually the lower limits on offer are annual and the higher are lifetime, but you'll want to check.

 

For example, a policy offering a 3 million baht limit is probably an annual limit policy and one offering 30 million is likely a lifetime limit policy. Since many lifetime limit policies have internal caps and other limitations per illness, hospitalization or procedure, the difference starts to shrink when you take a closer look and contemplate real-world scenarios, but the higher limits are still advantageous. In theory, you could use 3 million in benefits each year for ten years under the 3 million annual limit policy (if the insurer renews) and have used as much benefit as was on offer from the 30 million limit lifetime policy. Very unlikely, however. It is also unlikely that one could use up the full 30 million in lifetime benefits due to the policy's internal limits.

 

Few insurers guarantee renewal or that they won't eventually increase premiums to the point they become unaffordable. This is the insurance companies' get-out-of-jail card.

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, Dart12 said:

I've known exactly what I've wanted to find in here with keywords even...

 

It's almost impossible to find anything when searching

Well if you ain't got health insurance already I wouldn't do what I did in Thailand and get private health insurance.

There's a mod on ANF who knows a lot about health insurance in Thailand.

[topt]

2 hours ago, Etaoin Shrdlu said:

For example, a policy offering a 3 million baht limit is probably an annual limit policy and one offering 30 million is likely a lifetime limit policy. 

It is certainly very well worth checking but as a generalisation, unless things have changed, also I think a little misleading.

 

Most of the International policies I looked at when researching it were offering annual limits of minimum 15m baht and often 30m plus. I think the lowest were options at $250k which is around 8m baht and even April Thailand was 16m baht at the time.

 

Obviously with premiums to match..........

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

4 minutes ago, topt said:

It is certainly very well worth checking but as a generalisation, unless things have changed, also I think a little misleading.

 

 

 

It wasn't my intention to mislead, but yes, on further reflection, my generalization was probably not the best. 

[Dart12]

On 8/20/2021 at 8:00 PM, topt said:

It is certainly very well worth checking but as a generalisation, unless things have changed, also I think a little misleading.

 

Most of the International policies I looked at when researching it were offering annual limits of minimum 15m baht and often 30m plus. I think the lowest were options at $250k which is around 8m baht and even April Thailand was 16m baht at the time.

 

Obviously with premiums to match..........

That's key... What is premium?

[Saltire]

As another example I pay around £1200 per annum to UK firm HCI and have maximum cover of almost 16 million baht. Cant say they are bad or good as never had to claim in 6 years. You're younger so your premium should be less.

 

 

[topt]

30 minutes ago, Dart12 said:

That's key... What is premium?

Depends on your age etc. They vary a lot between the different providers for similar cover.

 

Some companies have individual quotes and others have "age bandings" where the premium is the same normally for 5 year increments but with a big jump when you enter a new banding. Also the banding rates can move up at any time.

 

If you contact a good broker they should be able to give you a lot of this information. 

[CrossBones]

On 8/22/2021 at 1:27 PM, topt said:

Depends on your age etc. They vary a lot between the different providers for similar cover.

 

Some companies have individual quotes and others have "age bandings" where the premium is the same normally for 5 year increments but with a big jump when you enter a new banding. Also the banding rates can move up at any time.

 

If you contact a good broker they should be able to give you a lot of this information. 

Unfortunately many of the insurance brokers are crooks and will sell you whats best for them, commission wise, and not for you. Choosing the health insurance could be the most important decision of your life

[topt]

4 minutes ago, CrossBones said:

Unfortunately many of the insurance brokers are crooks and will sell you whats best for them, commission wise, and not for you.

I didn't say one had to buy from them. if you read my post it was about obtaining information on multiple policies. When I was looking the broker I used had a spread sheet form with upwards of 10 different policies to compare which I found useful as a start point.

 

As always you still need to DYOR.

[chakatee]

On 8/17/2021 at 3:52 PM, atpeace said:

Is 3 million enough coverage for Asean countries

3M per year or lifetime?

Per year it will cover you for most things if there's no lengthy ICU stay or expensive chemo's
If lifetime, if you happen to get cancer or similar, needing chemo- and other cancer therapies, then 3M will be run out very fast