BANGKOK (NNT) - The Department of Health Services Support will allow Thai health insurance firms to offer packages that cover treatments to international tourists, as well as permit more hospitels under the hotel isolation scheme.

 

According to the Department’s Director-General Tares Krassanairawiwong, the main issue that international visitors face is that their health insurance does not cover treatment costs if they exhibit moderate symptoms after being infected with the virus. The department has proposed that the Office of Insurance Commission allow Thai health insurance companies to introduce packages that cover Covid-19 treatments in order to help foreign tourists in making faster claims for treatment expenses, as it would normally take 7-10 days for some foreign health insurance companies to claim expenses.

 

Meanwhile, the Director-General stated that the department is expanding hotel isolation for patients with mild symptoms due to an increase in hotel business owners requesting that their facilities be converted into hospitels under the hotel isolation scheme. He noted that Chonburi province has launched a home isolation scheme for international tourists who have no symptoms and expects that hotels in tourist areas will be allowed to function as hospitels in the future.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2022-01-13

 

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Beating around the bush. If you're asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, you should just be ordered to lie low at home for 5 days. No need of any insurance.

6 minutes ago, JackGats said:

Beating around the bush. If you're asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, you should just be ordered to lie low at home for 5 days. No need of any insurance.

Probably few tourists have a home in Thailand.

Director-General Tares has it a bit backwards. The problem isn't that insurers won't pay for medically unnecessary hospitalization. The problem is that the Thai government mandates medically unnecessary hospitalization.

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

According to the Department’s Director-General Tares Krassanairawiwong, the main issue that international visitors face is that their health insurance does not cover treatment costs if they exhibit moderate symptoms after being infected with the virus. The department has proposed that the Office of Insurance Commission allow Thai health insurance companies to introduce packages that cover Covid-19 treatments in order to help foreign tourists in making faster claims for treatment expenses, as it would normally take 7-10 days for some foreign health insurance companies to claim expenses.

I thought travelers had to buy Thai Covid insurance to get clearance to come.. yet the existing cover doesn't cover it?

8 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

I thought travelers had to buy Thai Covid insurance to get clearance to come.. yet the existing cover doesn't cover it?

Most medical or travel insurance policies will cover the actual cost to treat symptomatic Covid to the extent that the treatment is medically necessary. Most policies won't cover the cost of hospitalization when it is not medically necessary such as when asymptomatic people are hospitalized by government public health policy simply because they test positive.

 

The current requirement for Covid insurance for visitors allows policies that cover the actual medically necessary treatment of Covid. It does not require the insurer to cover the cost of hospitalization when solely mandated by public health policy. Thus there is often a gap between what is required for entry and the actual hospital expenses a visitor may incur when testing positive.

 

Some policies issued by Thai insurers will cover the cost of mandatory hospitalization for asymptomatic people.

So when it's time for the first testing, there are two people standing in front of you. One with a swab for testing and another selling hospitel insurance???

14 hours ago, JackGats said:

Beating around the bush. If you're asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, you should just be ordered to lie low at home for 5 days. No need of any insurance.

It's a nice idea but not enforceable. We already have posts on this forum where people seem to be proud of going around and spreading the disease, for the greater good.

 

Unfortunately, some people need protecting from themselves and we all have to pay the price.

 

 

14 hours ago, Etaoin Shrdlu said:

The problem is that the Thai government mandates medically unnecessary hospitalization.

 

This one.

 

 

 

Slowly inching towards the holy grail: Insurance which covers force detention with a positive result, and no symptoms, and therefore no medical treatments necessary.

 

 

The regime needs to fully indemnify tourists, via paid-for insurance if necessary.

 

Not sure why this concept is so challenging for thai authorities to comprehend?

 

 

 

 

There will now be a scramble from assorted insurance companies and hotel chains to clamber onto the bandwagon created by the government as policy of forcing quarantine. 

 

Unless the definition of "mild symptoms" is set in concrete, and I suggest monitored by some form of independent body, then any such insurance policy is unlikely to ever pay out anyway.

 

Instead of racking their brains for ever more imaginative ways of screwing the few who are coming perhaps they should be setting up as simple entry procedure to breathe some life into the near corpse they are trying to rob!

Me? Vitamin D3, zinc, Vitamin C every day. I have 5 days of Ivermectin waiting in the wings in case. Betadine Nasal spray if I been out in public when I come home, gargle with Listerine with alcohol. Keep the house ventilated. No mask for me if I am on the outside. I will wear it in a store I need to go in since the place is private property  

15 hours ago, JackGats said:

Beating around the bush. If you're asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, you should just be ordered to lie low at home for 5 days. No need of any insurance.

But that doesn't generate the income for hotels, hospitals, and insurance companies that this private-public partnership of government and corporate interests wishes to create.
Problem - reaction - solution.  They have created a high-priced "solution" that they want because it creates large amounts of revenue by raping the public, foreigners in particular.

Yes - people should be allow to recover and quarantine at home.

Even though I have land and a guest house on our property and the supplies and resources at any given moment to stay put for two weeks or more, I guarantee I'd be forced into an expensive hospital simply because I am a "Cha-Ching" foreigner.
So what do I do?  I don't record my movement at stores like 'good citizens', the phone stays in a Faraday bag, and I stay away from public testing like it's the plague.

If they want my cooperation - then stop treating foreigners like milk-cows and extend the same rights to foreigners as they do Thais without the racist, rent-seeking discrimination.  Here where I live in a village, Thais have been allowed to quarantine at home when Covid positive. The medical infrastructure is available already.  But they'd force me into a hospital and hand me a $100K bill on the way out.
When the Thai courts say that gouging foreigners at hospitals isn't discrimination because foreigners are 'rich' - well, then the racist, rent-seeking discrimination becomes institutionalized.  Watch for future schemes targeting foreigners in order to transfer their wealth to Thai corporate entities now that the precedence is set and codified.  But right now, forcing foreigners into hospitals for a hefty price is the current iteration of this scheme.
It's a lose-lose situation as I won't willing play their game of "Milk-The-Foreigner-For-Money-In-The-Name-Of-Covid" as doing so takes money away from supporting the interests of my Thai family.

55 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

 

 

 

This one.

 

 

 

Slowly inching towards the holy grail: Insurance which covers force detention with a positive result, and no symptoms, and therefore no medical treatments necessary.

 

 

The regime needs to fully indemnify tourists, via paid-for insurance if necessary.

 

Not sure why this concept is so challenging for thai authorities to comprehend?

 

 

 

 

The Thai government could "ask" a few Thai insurers to offer a narrowly tailored product to all arrivals designed to address only the issue of forced medically unnecessary hospitalization when testing positive.  There would need to be full disclosure of public health policy, the potential costs involved in forced hospitalization and the fact that most other policies won't cover these costs.

 

Alternately, the Thai government could bear the cost of such hospitalization or hotel isolation if the latter becomes policy.

 

Either approach is asking for things the Thai government does not want to do, but the present situation is not a fair disclosure or allocation of risk.

This is a great scam.

 

Make insurance compulsory.

Sell the insurance.

Have a clause that doesn't cover asymptomatic cases.

Insist that asymptomatic cases go to a private hospital.

 

Insurance company wins. Private hospital wins. Foreigner loses. 

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, Etaoin Shrdlu said:

The Thai government could "ask" a few Thai insurers to offer a narrowly tailored product to all arrivals designed to address only the issue of forced medically unnecessary hospitalization when testing positive.  There would need to be full disclosure of public health policy, the potential costs involved in forced hospitalization and the fact that most other policies won't cover these costs.

 

Alternately, the Thai government could bear the cost of such hospitalization or hotel isolation if the latter becomes policy.

 

Either approach is asking for things the Thai government does not want to do, but the present situation is not a fair disclosure or allocation of risk.

The game plays like this.  The Thai government demands that foreigners have $nnn,nnn amount of insurance.  If a foreigner has a positive Covid test, then forcefully incarcerate the foreigner and hand them a bill for $nnn,nnn amount of money that matches the insurance requirements.
It's a scam.

The insurance should be there for people who get sick and actually need health care.  Not for gouging foreigners because they are perceived as an easily available supply of large amounts of revenue created in a scheme that targets deliberately targets them, like the completely asymptomatic.

31 minutes ago, david2923 said:

Me? Vitamin D3, zinc, Vitamin C every day. I have 5 days of Ivermectin waiting in the wings in case. Betadine Nasal spray if I been out in public when I come home, gargle with Listerine with alcohol.

Cool.

 

Thanks for the update on the provisioning of your panic room/survival bunker.

 

Pro tip: You can never have too much aluminium wrap.

 

 

But, what does your list have to do with tourists and insurance?

 

 

1 minute ago, mtls2005 said:

Pro tip: You can never have too much aluminium wrap.

Snark of the day. 

This is a step in the right direction, however not completely, still too many grey areas.

 

From a business and medical sense a medical facility is best suited for tourist with covid, maybe a long term care facility versus a hospital to no overburden the healthcare system.

 

It would seems that a hotel with the whatever ++ certification would work but the staff are regular people with some crash course on safety i would assume, i would not want to stay in a hotel if most of the people there are infected, i might not even want to stay there ever again, would you?

 

 

5 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

Cool.

 

Thanks for the update on the provisioning of your panic room/survival bunker.

 

Pro tip: You can never have too much aluminium wrap.

 

 

But, what does your list have to do with tourists and insurance?

 

 

You da man oh great guru

am not a tourist

On 1/14/2022 at 10:29 AM, david2923 said:

Me? Vitamin D3, zinc, Vitamin C every day. I have 5 days of Ivermectin waiting in the wings in case. Betadine Nasal spray if I been out in public when I come home, gargle with Listerine with alcohol. Keep the house ventilated. No mask for me if I am on the outside. I will wear it in a store I need to go in since the place is private property  

You are absolutely correct, why don't our medical professionals tell us the same. Keep your immune system tuned up and your chances of having covid symptons are very slim. If you are not a pill taker eat plenty of eggs for their Zinc and minerals and spend some time every day in the sun for the natural production of Vitamin D!! We all know where to get plenty of Vitamin C !!!

What is mind boggling to me is that there are enough people clamoring to get back into Thailand that these crazy schemes are profitable. 

1 hour ago, garyk said:

What is mind boggling to me is that there are enough people clamoring to get back into Thailand that these crazy schemes are profitable. 

Anybody coming at this stage already knows its a lottery getting through and not ending up in costly positive result/contact but most are thai's,

Seems there is no limits to testing forigners to satisify involantary quarrantiine at hotels and hosps TIT

 

On 1/14/2022 at 9:34 AM, JayClay said:

It's a nice idea but not enforceable. We already have posts on this forum where people seem to be proud of going around and spreading the disease, for the greater good.

Which posts ??? ......

 

Stop making up utter rubbish... no one has made such a post.... 

 

 

Erm.....    This....

 

‘Some’ Thai insurance companies were refusing pay out.....  who trusts them?... and then they have backup to avoid bankruptcy.... and now they are being pedalled..... 

 

All very.... well..erm, Thai I suppose....  a dash of cronyism with your nepotism anyone ?

 

 

6 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Which posts ??? ......

 

Stop making up utter rubbish... no one has made such a post.... 

 

 

Your apology will be welcome...

17 hours ago, paul1804 said:

You are absolutely correct, why don't our medical professionals tell us the same. Keep your immune system tuned up and your chances of having covid symptons are very slim. If you are not a pill taker eat plenty of eggs for their Zinc and minerals and spend some time every day in the sun for the natural production of Vitamin D!! We all know where to get plenty of Vitamin C !!!

Read a claim today that one is genetically predisposed to getting serious Covid...... While I give your statement merit, possibly not the full story, many very healthy people have also succumbed. 

On 1/17/2022 at 8:31 AM, jacko45k said:

Read a claim today that one is genetically predisposed to getting serious Covid...... While I give your statement merit, possibly not the full story, many very healthy people have also succumbed. 

 

On 1/17/2022 at 8:31 AM, jacko45k said:

Read a claim today that one is genetically predisposed to getting serious Covid...... While I give your statement merit, possibly not the full story, many very healthy people have also succumbed. 

I am not saying you will be fully protected but if your immune system is in top shape it drastically reduces the chances of any viral infections. 

10 hours ago, paul1804 said:

 

I am not saying you will be fully protected but if your immune system is in top shape it drastically reduces the chances of any viral infections. 

Well I would still avoid getting bit by a rabid dog and trusting to to my immune system to be okay without treatment...... same goes for Delta covid. 

On 1/14/2022 at 11:03 AM, mtls2005 said:

Cool.

 

Thanks for the update on the provisioning of your panic room/survival bunker.

 

Pro tip: You can never have too much aluminium wrap.

 

 

But, what does your list have to do with tourists and insurance?

 

 

I guess the point he is making is take your own insurance policy by taking vitamins to help boost your immune system giving you a slimmer chance of contacting the virus!!!