Health Costs

[vrsushi]

If you have been living here can you please say roughly how long and how much you have spent on health related costs. Oh and your age.

Please don't include spending on conditions that you were born with or that you have got because of behaviour such as drug/alcohol addiction.

If your insurance has paid it and you dont know a gestimate will have to do.

It maybe be futile, but my aim is to see how much people actually spend on this often forgoten part of a budget.

I have been in Asia for 12 years, am 40 and my total spend so far is about $1000, about $7 a month. And most of that is one dentist visit in Japan.

I am guess that for someone who exercises, eats well, no hereditory illness and bad habits health costs are lower than yo'd think and maybe worth self insuring apart from maybe accident.

[a2396]

If you have been living here can you please say roughly how long and how much you have spent on health related costs. Oh and your age.

Please don't include spending on conditions that you were born with or that you have got because of behaviour such as drug/alcohol addiction.

If your insurance has paid it and you dont know a gestimate will have to do.

It maybe be futile, but my aim is to see how much people actually spend on this often forgoten part of a budget.

I have been in Asia for 12 years, am 40 and my total spend so far is about $1000, about $7 a month. And most of that is one dentist visit in Japan.

I am guess that for someone who exercises, eats well, no hereditory illness and bad habits health costs are lower than yo'd think and maybe worth self insuring apart from maybe accident.

I don't know what use such information from other people would be to you. Health costs are quite variable from one person to another & of course variable to age & many other factors. Healthcare is a helluva lot cheaper in Thailand than back home (USA), but it is a good idea to buy some sort of health insurance, if you don't have any other coverage. If you are only 40, it should not be to expensive.

[nidge]

When i lived in the UK i never paid a penny for any health care. I'm 41 now. Since moving to Thailand my healthcare costs have skyrocketed. I have probably paid more than 12,000 baht on dentistry and close to 5,000 baht on other health care. So 20,000 baht for 7 years = 240 baht per month. Perhaps i should consider moving back to UK to save some money!

[Monkeypants]

When i lived in the UK i never paid a penny for any health care. I'm 41 now. Since moving to Thailand my healthcare costs have skyrocketed. I have probably paid more than 12,000 baht on dentistry and close to 5,000 baht on other health care. So 20,000 baht for 7 years = 240 baht per month. Perhaps i should consider moving back to UK to save some money!

Didn't you pay NI contributions? or tax?

[nidge]

Didn't you pay NI contributions? or tax?

Yes, didn't you notice the slight tinge of sarcasm in my post?

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

It cost me about 1400Baht a month on medication, high blood pressure and gout. In the 18 months I have been living in Thailand I have spent 700Baht for a office call (gout related). I have no medical insurance as once you reach 70 it becomes extremely expensive to insure, I'm 74 and rarely sick.

I have never recovered the annual cost of my medical insurance vs. Dr bills. Was insured prior to moving to LOS, now I am self insured. I think it really boils down to your health and lifestyle as to what it will cost. But you will find that medical in Thailand is very reasonable.

[ProThaiExpat]

I am intrigued by BEENTHEREDONETHA's post. I too have sub-clinical gout and have taken probenicid 300mg a day for 30 or more years. I am just two years his junior.

My blood pressure is controlled with 50 mg of a beta blocker, 10 mg. of a ace inhibitor and diazide. Cholesterol controlled by bestatin. Total cost of all these generics are less than 10 baht a day. Don't need to see doctors for that as I have had the conditions for years and there is the internet. I do pay for lab tests every year or so to make sure they are working. Have blood pressure machine at home.

In six years, total medical costs for rate doctor visits are minimal. Fell off ladder last year and four operations later my total cost was 230K Baht for top rate care.

Insurance is not an option for me as it is so expensive and based on my excellent health experience, not economical. Latest statistics indicate that those of 70 have a 54% chance of surviving until 90. Longer than I have planned on but an exit strategy is important.

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

ProThaiExpat

The gout medication purinol is almost nothing, 1.2Baht per 300mm pill, Coversyl and coapprovel are relatively expensive a little over 1,300baht a month. I also monitor my blood pressure at home and find the Thai Dr. not to concerned about it if it goes up. Up being over 140/90 .

The gout medicine I have only been on for three months as I use to take indocid whenever it would act up but that quit doing the job for me so switched to Purinol daily and that pretty much takes care of the problem.

I plan to live until I am at least 96 as that is when my mother passed away. She was in very good health until the last couple of days. Since I take after her more than my father. That is thin hair, bad hearing and very good vision. On the down side my father passed away at 60.

I will stay off of ladders. The high blood pressure I have had for about 30 years now. 80 use to seem old, it dosen't seem that old anymore.

[koheesti]

I have never recovered the annual cost of my medical insurance vs. Dr bills.

I'm not advocating not having insurance but I agree with you here. I'm 43 and about 16 months ago while living in another country I broke my arm. My first time in a hospital since I was 17. In the end, it cost me $1000 LESS than if I had been paying insurance premiums each month from the time I arrived.

I arrived in Thailand 6 months ago. If I had been paying 3000 baht/month in premiums, that would be 18,000 baht so far. How far would that much go around here?

[PeaceBlondie]

If you are fit and forty, you may remain so for decades more. So, it's not going to be much help to hear about us who are in our 60's and 70's. Oh, and stay off of motorbikes, too. But if you do fall off, try not to also get an infection that requires another 50K baht of surgery.

Thailand is a far riskier/less healthy place than the US or the UK.

[Briggsy]

Over 10 years in Thailand. Arrived here in my 20's

I have health insurance with my job. It's not a very comprehensive cover. My share of the premium is 300 Baht per month.

Yearly average cost over 10 years is probably the 3600 in premiums plus a dental visit (1000) plus one elective uncovered hospital trip (say 700). I got hit by a car who fled the scene but even that didn't cost much for an x-ray.

So that's an average of 5,300 per year, let's call it 6,000. This is a monthly expenditure of 500 Baht. But I am aware the costs will rise as I get older.

[mellow1]

I pay about 16,000 Baht/MO on life and health insurance for, it covers the 3 of us, mom, dad,and son.

Many times I wish I could use that money for something else, because we have thus far been blessed, with not having something serious happen to any of us. Then I remember the tales of others less fortunate, and I remember why I got the insurance.

[vrsushi]

Interesting posts so far. I know that nothing meaningful can be taken from a forum survey, but it's good to see other peoples' experience.

I ask because on my "how is my 40k budget" thread I only put down 500bht a month healthcare. My reasoning is this.

The vast majority of a nations healthcare costs are spent on children, the very aged, the chronically sick (often triggered by hereditory factors) and alcohol and smoking related illnesses.

1. I am not a child and don't intend to have any. (though my "beauty" thread suggests that I do need to grow up:)

2. When very aged if it comes down to those awful Altzeimers type conditions as a Brit I figure the only thing to do is move back to the UK

3. If chronic illness is on my path again I'd go back to the UK. Who would stay in Thailand with kidney failure?

4. I don't smoke and drink very modestly.

On top of this I exercise every day. I'm vegetarian and would never drink drive etc. So I rekon that 500 bht a month would cover normal costs. As a cushion I also consider that if I were sick enough to need hospitalisation then I wouldn't be using my 14k bht a month entertainment budget.

In the last 5 years (since exercising and eating healthily) I haven't been sick a single day.

Would anybody like to challenge my assumptions?

[jbowman1993]

Would anybody like to challenge my assumptions?

No, not really.

[Briggsy]

Your assumptions tally precisely with my experience so in terms of budgetting, 500 Baht a month is a fair prediction. This is the point of the thread.

On a separate point, one never knows what lurks around the corner. And I would guess in Thailand, some form of traffic accident is the most likely thing to land you in hospital. For this I suggest you have an emergency fund that you can use.

Or alternatively by purchasing health insurance you can take a lot of the guesswork out of the situation and budget more precisely.

[thaihome]

I pay about $200 per month for my share of western medical insurance (wife and myself) with a $1,000 deductible. In 10 years I have never filed a claim as you have to be pretty bad off to get to $1,000 in Thailand.

I only carrying it in case of a major problem that might require a long hospitalization and I would be covered either here or in the US.

TH

[Scott]

I suggest that foreigners have medical--or at least accident insurance. Where I work, our employer pays for it. It has minimal coverage, but with over 60 international staff, I've seen some really freaky injuries, illnesses, accidents and they have left some folks in an awful mess, both physically and financially. Including being unable to work.

Ordinary medical care isn't too expensive, most drugs are reasonably affordable, but those accidents caused injuries are a real drain on the resources and I have no idea how one would calculate the costs that might be incurred.

[naka]

If you have been living here can you please say roughly how long and how much you have spent on health related costs. Oh and your age.

Please don't include spending on conditions that you were born with or that you have got because of behaviour such as drug/alcohol addiction.

If your insurance has paid it and you dont know a gestimate will have to do.

It maybe be futile, but my aim is to see how much people actually spend on this often forgoten part of a budget.

I have been in Asia for 12 years, am 40 and my total spend so far is about $1000, about $7 a month. And most of that is one dentist visit in Japan.

I am guess that for someone who exercises, eats well, no hereditory illness and bad habits health costs are lower than yo'd think and maybe worth self insuring apart from maybe accident.

Feel free to do your own thing. Some people need health insurance, but of course the rich do not.

Doubt the salesmen call Bill G's number.

Naka.

[helitool]

I am 59 and have been in Thailand for about 10 months now (I lived here for 8 years about 30 years ago). One month after arriving I had a severe angina attack and had to have a stent installed by Dr. Tanawat at Suan Dawk hospital. Cost was $5,000, $2500 of that was for the stent itself. Three years ago I had a minor hernia operation at Chiang Rai hospital which cost $250 including 3 nights in a private room. I am from the USA so my option if the heart attack had happened there would have been to die as I had no health insurance there. Nice to be able to pay health care costs by pulling out your wallet instead of selling your house!

[billaaa777]

I am fifty and never been sick a day in my life. I had a life threaten bacterial infection that come out of no where. I spent 5 weeks in the hospital and had 5 operations and spent well over 500,000 Baht. The first week in a top rated hospital cost me 350,000 Baht. I had to move from there because I could not afford it to a second rated hospital that did OK.

It was a VERY bad mistake to not have a top rated health insurance program with a 5,000,000 policy. What is more important than you health. If you have health insurance you go get checked out at the littlest sign of trouble, if you don't you wait until it gets serious like I did.

I gambled and lost, but luckily I am well off financially or I would have been dead. The indignity the hospital staff puts you through trying to get money out of you when you just come out of an operation and are under heavy dosages of drugs is something nobody should be put though. On top of that you are put in the position to make all of the life threaten and financial decision when you are deathly sick and under drugs and at times it is just to much to bear.

The cashier would wake me up in the middle of the night and put me in a well chair and roll me down to the ATM to withdrawn 20,000 Baht, the maximum I could take out. My operations where on my ass, so you could only image the pain I went though sitting in the chair. At this time I was so sick I could not move out of the bed on my own, but had to be picked up by the staff.

In addition, I showed the copy of bank books and money market accounts with in excess of 4,000,000 Baht in it which they made copies of. Finally they told me there were stopping treatment until I paid them in full at which time they but me in the back of an ambulance and drove me to the bank to withdraw the full amount I owned them. The SOB's also charged me 2,500 hundred for the ambulance too.

That was pretty much the last straw and I transferred to Satahip Navel hospital, which was a lot cheaper, but defiantly far inferior care. Well I luckily lived though it.

But if you want world class medical care in Pattaya, Bangkok Pattaya Hospital is the only place to go and you better have a 5,000,000 plus policy for anything that is serious or your out the door and on your way to dying.

[billaaa777]

I am fifty and never been sick a day in my life. I caught a life threaten bacterial infection which one of three people die from which come out of no where. I spent 5 weeks in the hospital and had 5 operations and spent well over 500,000 Baht.

The first week in a top rated hospital cost me 350,000 Baht at Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. I had to move from there because I could not afford it to a second rated hospital that did OK which was Sathip Navel Hospital.

But the quality of the care was no where near the care I received at Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. My surgeon was only 30 years old and just two years out of medical school at Satahip as opposed to the surgeons at Bangkok Pattaya Hospital with and average age of 50 and 20 years of experience. The surgeon at Satahip only visited me once a week or so in my room. The hospital had only 25% of the nurses that they had at Bangkok Pattaya hospital. The doctors at Pattya hospital check in on me at least four times a day to check my conditions and clean my wounds. Bangkok Pattaya always was giving me test to check the progrss of the infection three to five times a day. The surgeons preformed the wound care and wound cleaning at Bangkok Pattaya Hospital as opposed to nurses that had very little training in cleaning wounds at Satahip hospital whom rarely if ever performed test to check if my condition was improving or degenerating.

It was a VERY bad mistake to not have a top rated health insurance program with a 5,000,000 policy. What is more important than you health. If you have health insurance you go get checked out at the littlest sign of trouble, if you don't you wait until it gets serious like I did.

I gambled and lost, but luckily I am well off financially or I would have been dead. The indignity the hospital staff puts you through trying to get money out of you when you just come out of an operation and are under heavy dosages of drugs is something nobody should be put though. On top of that you are put in the position to make all of the life threaten and financial decision when you are deathly sick and under drugs and at times it is just to much to bear.

The cashier would wake me up in the middle of the night and put me in a well chair and roll me down to the ATM to withdrawn 20,000 Baht, the maximum I could take out. My operations where on my ass, so you could only image the pain I went though sitting in the chair. At this time I was so sick I could not move out of the bed on my own, but had to be picked up by the staff.

In addition, I showed the copy of bank books and money market accounts with in excess of 4,000,000 Baht in it which they made copies of. Finally they told me there were stopping treatment until I paid them in full at which time they but me in the back of an ambulance and drove me to the bank to withdraw the full amount I owned them. The SOB's also charged me 2,500 hundred for the ambulance too.

That was pretty much the last straw and I transferred to Satahip Navel hospital, which was a lot cheaper, but defiantly far inferior care. Well I luckily lived though it.

But if you want world class medical care in Pattaya, Bangkok Pattaya Hospital is the only place to go and you better have a 5,000,000 plus policy for anything that is serious or your out the door and on your way to dying.

[ProThaiExpat]

billaaa777 Your choice of hospital initially was understandable but from what I have heard of that hospital on Thaivisa, it is a "rip off". Your story about the cashier is deplorable. I have never been asked for a dime at Chiang Mae Ram until I head for home and I have been hospitalized four times in the last year. Yes, I have a patient file card and chart number going back a few years and have always paid immediately before leaving the hospital over the years, so perhaps I have a "credit rating" with them. One of my bills was for a 10 day stay of 145K and I just give them my debit card to pay the bill.

I agree that cheaper hospitals are available and the level of care may be just as good as the "ritzy ones".

[lopburi3]

Most people are not going to break even on insurance (could not be offered if they did) but it is designed for the emergency situation where you have a bill of a million or more baht. Most people do not keep that kind of available cash on hand and such a sudden bill would be very burdensome if not catastrophic. It is like a savings account that you many never reap the profits from but it is there for the hard times if they should ever come.

As for expense we (couple) pay, age late 60's, an average of 8500 baht per month directly to second level hospitals here in Bangkok for ongoing treatment of normal (gout, glaucoma, diabetes, osteoporosis). This is doctor visits/tests/medications. The recovery pays my insurance bill. Without insurance I could lower the total a bit with selective buying of medications but this would also mean a less effective medication in at least one case.