I have been told that foreigners working in Thailand can continue using the Thai government health insurance system after retirement, other's tell me that this is no longer possible. Can anyone enlighten me on this, and, if it is possible, what are the limitations and requirements. Thanks in advance.

It is possible; voluntary contributions can be made under Section 39 of the Social Security Act B.E. 2533 (1990). You need to have been employed by a Thai company and have been paying social fund contributions for a minimum of 12 months before your date of retirement.

 

You have 6 months after your date of retirement to successfully apply to your Social Fund office to make voluntary contributions. The monthly contribution/payment you must make is 432 baht per month, and it will need to be taken from your Thai bank by direct debit (which means you will need a Thai bank account).

 

As long as you keep paying the contributions, your coverage will continue. This is especially helpful if you intend staying in Thailand in your older age as health insurance of any kind can be really expensive or even impossible to obtain at older ages.

 

Just do not let your bank account run low by mistake and miss an automatic payment.

 

It depends where you are, as some Social Fund offices are quite used to this scenario, but others will not have encountered this before and will mistakenly believe that a non-Thai can not voluntarily pay to maintain their social fund status.

18 hours ago, blackcab said:

It is possible; voluntary contributions can be made under Section 39 of the Social Security Act B.E. 2533 (1990). You need to have been employed by a Thai company and have been paying social fund contributions for a minimum of 12 months before your date of retirement.

 

You have 6 months after your date of retirement to successfully apply to your Social Fund office to make voluntary contributions. The monthly contribution/payment you must make is 432 baht per month, and it will need to be taken from your Thai bank by direct debit (which means you will need a Thai bank account).

 

As long as you keep paying the contributions, your coverage will continue. This is especially helpful if you intend staying in Thailand in your older age as health insurance of any kind can be really expensive or even impossible to obtain at older ages.

 

Just do not let your bank account run low by mistake and miss an automatic payment.

 

It depends where you are, as some Social Fund offices are quite used to this scenario, but others will not have encountered this before and will mistakenly believe that a non-Thai can not voluntarily pay to maintain their social fund status.

 

 

Thank you for the great advice. A retiree told me that one needs to have one's name on a Tabian Baan in order to be eligible for the above. I am married but do not think this is necessary.

1 hour ago, Jaunty said:

Thank you for the great advice. A retiree told me that one needs to have one's name on a Tabian Baan in order to be eligible for the above. I am married but do not think this is necessary.

 

You don't need your name on a tabien baan to register for social fund, to pay social fund contributions or to claim from the social fund.

 

In the above situation you would already be a participating member of the social fund, it would just be a matter of changing your contributions from Section 33 to Section 39.