Local health cost & insurance limits

[C3PO]

Hi all,

 

I have some questions regarding local health costs in Thailand:

 

I am looking for a local health insurance policy for a Thai family member (international policies are not an option for Thai citizens living in Thailand). She is covered under the 30-baht scheme, but I want some top-up because I don’t want to deal with the administrative hurdles and long waiting times.

 

The April policy seems to be popular in this forum, so I have some questions:

 

1. The April essential plan covers organ transplants up to 1,6 million TBH and kidney dialysis up to 163,000 TBH per policy year. Both limits seem low to me, but I am not familiar with health care costs here. Do you guys think those limits are ok? The higher plan covers organ transplants up to 5 million THB and kidney dialysis up to 1.6 million THB, which sounds more reasonable.

 

2. As a backup we could use the 30-baht scheme to cover things like dialysis or organ transplants that the plan excludes or has low limits on. Is there a list somewhere where I can see what is covered under the 30-baht scheme?

 

Also, if you have made good experiences with other local policies, I would be happy for a pointer in the right direction. Also in regards to their claim handling. AXA has a good policy as well, although more expensive. 

 

Many thanks for any advice you can give.

[KannikaP]

Am I reading this correctly. You want a policy to cover transplant or dialysis, and want the 30 Bht scheme to cover any excess the policy does not cover?

[C3PO]

Quote

Am I reading this correctly. You want a policy to cover transplant or dialysis, and want the 30 Bht scheme to cover any excess the policy does not cover?

The idea is to use private insurance wherever possible to have choice of hospital and avoid long waiting times, etc. However, considering that the local private insurance plans don't cover certain things and have low limits in place for some conditions, I was wondering if the 30-baht scheme does cover those things. This way we could use the private insurance where possible and where not possible we could fall back to the gov. health scheme, meaning we would then have to accept the drawbacks that may come with that system, but at least have access to healthcare.