Self Insurance

[jazzbo]

Elsewhere on ThaiVisa today someone is desperately trying to raise funds for the correcction of his 10-year old son's congenital heart defect -- the condition was only recently diagnosed. As best as I can tell (Mayo Clinic website) -- while a rare condition this is not 'experimental' surgery (as many health insurance policies will not cover 'experimental' surgery) ...

Where and no mention of is this gent's family health insurance policy? He seems to be running a considerable business here in Thailand ... Is he one of the 'self-insured' crowd who now must ask for public donations?

[jazzbo]

Oh ... a big red -1 ... I'm crushed.

Maybe 1% or so of families might suffer a catastrophic illness, but of that 1%, probably 100% never thought it would happen to them.

[jazzbo]

OK ... -2 -- From the little boy's Father's fund raising website: Life often isn't fair and there is little we can do to change that.

... except for maybe buying some <deleted> health insurance

[samran]

link to thread?

[jazzbo]

http://www.rinosheart.com/eng/engindex.htm

[samran]

Oh ... a big red -1 ... I'm crushed.

Maybe 1% or so of families might suffer a catastrophic illness, but of that 1%, probably 100% never thought it would happen to them.

two things here:

- All the best to the little man, def. know what it is like to have a child with a life threatening disease.

- Something is fishy. The guy is German, so presumably so is his son. Doesn't Germany have universal health care for its citizens which would take care of this? Why not just go back? In our case, when our daughter was diagnosed, we were on the first plane back to OZ and treatment started immediately. I'm not sure why this guy is hanging around Thailand.....

[jazzbo]

Kuhn S. -- I am not addressing any comments to the Gent with the young son to whom I wish Godspeed -- I am addressing those who have posted in THIS Forum that they 'Self Insure' and that anyone who does in fact purchase insurance for medical care is a chump ...

[wordchild]

For those who can afford to take the risk on themselves and who know that they would be able to deal with whatever comes along ( health wise) self insurance is a reasonable option. for most people,though, some form of health insurance is the way to go.

[jazzbo]

Self Insurance and 'No Insurance' are not the same thing -- 'Self Insurance' in the Lloyds of London-sense does not mean retaining 100% of any risk

'Whatever comes along' implies that wealthy people do not buy or need to buy health insurance which is certainly not the case --

... as in the case above, do you always have 2 million baht or more cash 24 hours a day at your disposal? ... some hospitals in Thailand or anywhere else will not even admit you with no insurance for an expensive procedure without a big deposit, which can be diffficult if you are infirm or unconscious.

[wordchild]

Self Insurance and 'No Insurance' are not the same thing -- 'Self Insurance' in the Lloyds of London-sense does not mean retaining 100% of any risk

'Whatever comes along' implies that wealthy people do not buy or need to buy health insurance which is certainly not the case --

... as in the case above, do you always have 2 million baht or more cash 24 hours a day at your disposal? ... some hospitals in Thailand or anywhere else will not even admit you with no insurance for an expensive procedure without a big deposit, which can be diffficult if you are infirm or unconscious.

For some that would not be a problem, and for these people self insurance is probably a good option. But ,of course, you have to be sure that you could cope with such extreme events, it is not for everyone.

BTW, in the Lloyds of London sense (or in any other sense) self insurance means exactly what it sounds like ; you can retain part or all of the risk but that which is not covered is defined as self insured.

[jazzbo]

Those for whom it would not be a problem usually end up buying the insurance -- if you retain 100% of the risk then you just have 'no insurance' (as there is no probability component) unless you have set-up some kind of captive entity in which case you would probably then not retain 100% of the risk anyway --100% of the risk as you suggest is called 'cash'.

... and even if you have a million dollars cash in the bank you could still under certain circumstances encounter problems being admitted to a hospital with no insurance.

... Making a bet with yourself has 2 probabilty components: 0% and 100% ... there is no lay-off of risk which is what insurance is.

[jazzbo]

On the General Topics today is another Self-Insured guy who decided to retain the risk for 'whatever comes along' but ended up 28,000 Pounds short for the Air-Ambulance fee ...

[jazzbo]

There is a media saying that "It isn't news when a plane lands safely ..." So we do not get to read "Self-Insured expat writes $US 200,000 check to cover long-term prostate cancer care."

But charitable appeals by those without coverage seem to make news both in Thailand and abroad.