Baby Due April 2010

[luap]

Our baby is due in April next year, currently we have no insurance/ health cover.

Is it to late to take out now, that will help cover the cost of the birth etc.?

Any advise would be much appreciated

thanks in advance....luap

[rfukata]

Our baby is due in April next year, currently we have no insurance/ health cover.

Is it to late to take out now, that will help cover the cost of the birth etc.?

Any advise would be much appreciated

thanks in advance....luap

If you are married to a Thai national he/she should be covered by the national insurance plan so having your baby should

not incur much cost if any. You will need to have the baby delivered in the city or town (province) where your wife is

registered in order to use her national coverage.

If you both are foreigners living in Thailand without health insurances, it probably would be a wise decision to have

a plan in case something goes wrong with your baby's delivery or illness.

(google - Thailand health insurance; etc)

[ozsamurai]

rf is partly correct, but the situation has changed a little re Health Insurance. If your wife is Thai, and has Social Security (worked for a company for over a year qualifies her I believe), then you do not need to go to her home province for the birth, anywhere is fine, the insurance will pay approx 10-12,000 Baht towards the costs of the birth, re-immbursed with receipts at their offices. Anything above that is yours to pay. VIP in Chula for 5 days under 30,000 is the norm I am lead to believe. If you have no Social Security you can get a Gold Card (or 30Bht Card), then its required you go to your home city for delivery, and no matter what procedure you only pay 30Bht, but I have been told you get pretty poor treatment.

Oz

[luap]

thanks

Yes my wife (well we marry next month) is thai and has worked in bangkok - hotel receptionist for nearly 3 years. She is from Korat but we will have the baby in bangkok.

Is still worth taking out health cover?

I'm not worried about the money

luap

[mjperry]

As your wife/gf is already pregnant it is too late to buy health insurance that will cover the cost of the birth. Also most policies I found when I was looking at this require you to have the policy in place for 12 months before they will allow maternity cover. The only benefit to the little one if you take out insurance coverage for your wife and yourself is that some policies will include the baby in your coverage from when he/she was born until 1st birthday for free.

Martin

[luap]

As your wife/gf is already pregnant it is too late to buy health insurance that will cover the cost of the birth. Also most policies I found when I was looking at this require you to have the policy in place for 12 months before they will allow maternity cover. The only benefit to the little one if you take out insurance coverage for your wife and yourself is that some policies will include the baby in your coverage from when he/she was born until 1st birthday for free.

Martin

Thanks Martin

I'll search for health cover for both of us that includes our baby

any ideas?

luap

[JoePai]

As your wife/gf is already pregnant it is too late to buy health insurance that will cover the cost of the birth. Also most policies I found when I was looking at this require you to have the policy in place for 12 months before they will allow maternity cover. The only benefit to the little one if you take out insurance coverage for your wife and yourself is that some policies will include the baby in your coverage from when he/she was born until 1st birthday for free.

Martin

Thanks Martin

I'll search for health cover for both of us that includes our baby

any ideas?

luap

We used the Thai Visa Insurance broker - easy and speaks English

[offset]

As your wife/gf is already pregnant it is too late to buy health insurance that will cover the cost of the birth. Also most policies I found when I was looking at this require you to have the policy in place for 12 months before they will allow maternity cover. The only benefit to the little one if you take out insurance coverage for your wife and yourself is that some policies will include the baby in your coverage from when he/she was born until 1st birthday for free.

Martin

Thanks Martin

I'll search for health cover for both of us that includes our baby

any ideas?

luap

Just a word of warning be careful you might find that the baby will not be covered for birth defects

[luap]

"Just a word of warning be careful you might find that the baby will not be covered for birth defects"

offset - that's one thing we all think about and don't want to face, I appreciate your thoughtful comment. We're done the deed, we do all we can to be healthy but as we know, life has many twists. It's our baby and our life.

cheers..luap

[offset]

"Just a word of warning be careful you might find that the baby will not be covered for birth defects"

offset - that's one thing we all think about and don't want to face, I appreciate your thoughtful comment. We're done the deed, we do all we can to be healthy but as we know, life has many twists. It's our baby and our life.

cheers..luap

luap I wish you the best of luck with your baby ours was born in February and everything was OK so he is now covered by insurance

[aussiebebe]

Our baby is due in April next year, currently we have no insurance/ health cover.

Is it to late to take out now, that will help cover the cost of the birth etc.?

Any advise would be much appreciated

thanks in advance....luap

First off, congrats on the pregnancy and I'm sure it will go fantastically well for you both!

My opinion is that it's not too late to get health insurance, however, you'd have to specifically ask insurance companies as I don't know their rules.

In terms of covering the cost of the birth you'd have to buy your Thai wife a policy and pay extra to add Maternity as an optional benefit for sure. For example, my wife, who isn't pregnant and hopefully never will be again, has a BUPA policy, to which Maternity benefit would have to be paid for.

In my opinion, the cost of the birth isn't really what you should be getting health insurance for. As others have noted, your wife can use a government hospital for next to nothing,

If you are thinking about only the hospital bill as an expense, then what you SHOULD be worried about, thinking practically, is the cost of complications in a private hospital. I don't want to sound negative, and probably everything will go extremely smoothly, but if it doesn't your baby's stay in, say, ICU for a week, or month could be devastating. You could easily have a bill for up to 500,000baht or more so you need to check that before parting with any cash to an insurance company or rep.

For example, my wife's optional BUPA Maternity benefit would pay 30k for all eligible hospital expenses, 60k for normal childbirth/caesarian etc and 15k for emergency deliveries. Obviously this wouldn't even dent an ICU bill, so it's hard to guage how much benefit this would be in the event of premature birth or delivery complication.

[luap]

thanks aussiebebe, useful information and food for thought.

I'll informed all when I take out insurance, could be helpful info for others.

cheers luap

[torrenova]

Time now to sort out anti-natal care and a delivery package. Usual cost for caesarian is 10k more than normal delivery in a private place. Costs can be less if the first point of contact is a Thai. Email hospitals in Thai from a Thai name.

[luap]

Update

Baby boy born 9th at Christian hospital Silom (mum and baby 100%) went for our weekly check up on 9th at 10.45am, thinking we had 2 weeks to go, but doctor said baby "out today" at 1.55pm our son has join the world.

wife had caesarian and they wouldn't let me see the birth

COST

Stayed 4 nights (5 days) couch for me to sleep on, food was ok and my meals included.

All up 54,450 bath

highly recommend the hospital

had to go back yesterday for check up, wasn't easy getting there after thursday's incident at silom but we made it.

Life is a dream and our family dream's every day

cheers... luap

[SinJ]

Read your story, wow congrats on your little baby boy.

Was just wondering, so did you end up bying any sort of maternity cover for your wife or did you just pay bit by bit (prenatal care/doctors appointments etc.) during the whole pregnancy incl. delivery?

Update

Baby boy born 9th at Christian hospital Silom (mum and baby 100%) went for our weekly check up on 9th at 10.45am, thinking we had 2 weeks to go, but doctor said baby "out today" at 1.55pm our son has join the world.

wife had caesarian and they wouldn't let me see the birth

COST

Stayed 4 nights (5 days) couch for me to sleep on, food was ok and my meals included.

All up 54,450 bath

highly recommend the hospital

had to go back yesterday for check up, wasn't easy getting there after thursday's incident at silom but we made it.

Life is a dream and our family dream's every day

cheers... luap