Health Insurance For An Over 65 Year Old Male!

[kevbap]

Hello all, hope everyone is in full and reasonable condition? which brings me nicely to my topic. I have a very good friend who wants to come back to Thailand and live out his years here, now some info, he is 69 years old, and has lived in Hua Hin before he became very ill and was taken to a very expensive 'hotel hospital' in Bangkok where after some lengthy and sometimes not needed treatment was asked to fork out 45,000 pounds English! well he then went back to the UK and has since made a full recovery, albeit with the aid of tablets.

Now because of this he is looking at health insurance this time, once bitten!! he acknowledges its not going to be cheap, and needs to speak with some other farangs here about what cover they have and with whom.

So that's about it, i am writing this because he does not have a computer yet, and he has 3 more weeks left of his 6 week stay here in Chiang Mai.

Any recommendations or pointers, telephone numbers or advice will be passed on to him.

thanks Thai visa community

Kevin

[InterestedObserver]

Sixty-nine years old with prior serious health issues and now on "tablets", I'd say either no way or prohibitively expensive. Any and all preexisting conditions, along with their side effects, will be excluded.

[kevbap]

Sixty-nine years old with prior serious health issues and now on "tablets", I'd say either no way or prohibitively expensive. Any and all preexisting conditions, along with their side effects, will be excluded.

Yeah, i reckon so also but i said i would ask around, i think he might have to take out separate 'holiday' health insurance and run another on the back of that one? say 2 6month policies from 2 different companies, but he will have to set them up to be continued while over here?

Thanks

[ProThaiExpat]

Most of "old birds" who came to Thailand when they were over 65 are faced with the issue of obtaining insurance before we reach 69, the top end of the age where insurance can be bought.

Knowing that I would like coverage after 69, I canvassed companies that advertised continual coverage after that date but with increased premium.

My best quote at that time, ten years ago, was 12k baht a month. With open heart surgery advertised at expensive heart hospitals in Bkk for 500k baht, I figured that my worst case scenario was four years of no insurance before my heart attack and I would be ahead of the game.

History is I have had no mentionable medical needs for eight years and then a fall off a ladder resulted in four surgeries for a comminuted and displaced femoral fracture including 31 days of hospitalization over a year before I was released from treatment. Top surgeon, top hospital and a 200K total bill for everything. Its now been 10 years and a generous estimate of my medical expense for that time is 250k baht for that entire time.

12k baht a month, assuming it was never raised, (dreaming) and my insurance cost would have been far in excess of one million baht.

The basis for insurance is fear and my guess many will post a horror story however, insurance companies are rich and own vast amounts of property for a reason.

My guess that your friend has the UK to return to if he has a serious illness. My backup plan is if I do get in a serious long term illness that would be very costly, I would return to my home country and use my government paid for hospitalization.

Insurance policies are one or two paragraphs of coverage and pages of exclusions.

The elderly have many basic systemic anomalies such as high blood sugar, elevated blood pressure, decreased kidney function and the like, fertile ground for an exclusions based on a pre-existing condition.

I was able to overcome my fear of being self insured for medical expense when I was no longer able to buy health insurance due to my age.

Good luck to your friend as he "makes do" without health insurance, knowing that even people with health insurance can be thrown into bankruptcy due to the cost of health care.

Edited September 27, 2011 by ProThaiExpat

[rodentwarrior]

In my view, if you can't afford health insurance, you shouldn't consider living here, if you are from UK. There are many types of illness or accident damage that could result in extensive treatment, and you may not be able to travel (back to UK for the free healthcare).

And being so irresponsible as to smugly report that a saving has been made by not having insurance is frankly ridiculous. Citing open heart surgery as potentially being the most expensive treatment is laughable. You could be very badly damaged being hit by a car/bus/tuk-tuk/motorbike or even being badly beaten during a robbery. If you are unable to travel to UK for treatment, and you run out of money, who do you think is going to help you.

Can't afford insurance? You can't afford to live in Thailand.

[Baht Man]

Try Nordic Healthcare

You can renew forever as long as you enroll prior to age 75 and they were very generious when it came to covering my pre existings.

PM me for more if you need it.

[mikecwm]

In my view, if you can't afford health insurance, you shouldn't consider living here, if you are from UK. There are many types of illness or accident damage that could result in extensive treatment, and you may not be able to travel (back to UK for the free healthcare).

And being so irresponsible as to smugly report that a saving has been made by not having insurance is frankly ridiculous. Citing open heart surgery as potentially being the most expensive treatment is laughable. You could be very badly damaged being hit by a car/bus/tuk-tuk/motorbike or even being badly beaten during a robbery. If you are unable to travel to UK for treatment, and you run out of money, who do you think is going to help you.

Can't afford insurance? You can't afford to live in Thailand.

Perhaps you can tell us your age and what your premiums are at now. I'm not wanting to be nosy, but premiums at an advanced age must be extremely high.

On your last point, I've spent the middle 30 years of my life travelling the world and climbing mountains. Some of them pretty big and potentially nasty. If I had stayed at home because I couldn't afford the insurance (your point I believe), insurance to climb big mountains is practically impossible to find anyway, my life would have been a bare skeleton of what it eventually turned out.

Now my son appears to be following in my footsteps. What am I to tell him? Don't do anything dangerous - you may not be able to afford the medical bills.

I don't think so. I will tell him to go out and have an amazing life full of adventure. Don't be afraid of taking the bull by the horns.

[maprao]

Try Nordic Healthcare

You can renew forever as long as you enroll prior to age 75 and they were very generious when it came to covering my pre existings.

PM me for more if you need it.

That is very good cover that is available. Will keep that for when my company ceases to cover me. Thanks for the info Baht Man

[23962323]

Your only a few hours away from Malaysia,half the medical costs of Thailand,try India also,far far cheaper and better care

[nong38]

In my view, if you can't afford health insurance, you shouldn't consider living here, if you are from UK. There are many types of illness or accident damage that could result in extensive treatment, and you may not be able to travel (back to UK for the free healthcare).

And being so irresponsible as to smugly report that a saving has been made by not having insurance is frankly ridiculous. Citing open heart surgery as potentially being the most expensive treatment is laughable. You could be very badly damaged being hit by a car/bus/tuk-tuk/motorbike or even being badly beaten during a robbery. If you are unable to travel to UK for treatment, and you run out of money, who do you think is going to help you.

Can't afford insurance? You can't afford to live in Thailand.

It might be of interest to you to know that I know of a major UK institution who stopped taking out Insurance with Insurance companies, set up their own Insurance company and paid the premiums into that company to be drawn on as required, the company was set up in the Channel Islands. It has saved the company lots of premiums and still continues today.

I am 65 and am here on travel insurance, I will be putting money into the bank as a back up because in a few years, I will likely not be able to get Insurance on cost/age grounds. Insurance does indeed run on fear, like the lottery runs on optimism.

The highest cost you are likely to encounter is a heart by-pass about 1.5m bt so that is what you probably need to aim at and hope for the best ( none of us knows when a part is going to fail ).

Edited March 28, 2012 by nong38

[cooked]

In my view, if you can't afford health insurance, you shouldn't consider living here, if you are from UK. There are many types of illness or accident damage that could result in extensive treatment, and you may not be able to travel (back to UK for the free healthcare).

And being so irresponsible as to smugly report that a saving has been made by not having insurance is frankly ridiculous. Citing open heart surgery as potentially being the most expensive treatment is laughable. You could be very badly damaged being hit by a car/bus/tuk-tuk/motorbike or even being badly beaten during a robbery. If you are unable to travel to UK for treatment, and you run out of money, who do you think is going to help you.

Can't afford insurance? You can't afford to live in Thailand.

It is not necessarily a matter of being able to afford the insurance (I got a quote from Nordic at around 15 000 Baht month, by the way), but the fact that older people are paying for peace of mind. I don't feel any confidence at all in companies that can at any time: exclude you from further treatment for a chronic illness you may have, exclude you at any time they feel like it, double your premiums when they feel like it. You'll find stuff like this in the small print, alluded to in an indirect way in most policies if you look. I have a repatriation insurance, so that when the time comes that I can no longer pay my bills, i can get medivaced (back to Switzerland) where I receive treatment as a Swiss citizen. Going along with self insurance most probably also.

[exeter]

Put money in the bank and hope you dont need to use it, better you keep it than give it some folks who may not do what you think they will and you wont get your money back either! Your money in your bank, not used you leave the money to whoever you choose.

I have looked at many schemes without exception they are expensive, to my mind, they go up every year and no guarantees you will get what you expect or a renewal when you look a bad bet.

[cooked]

Put money in the bank and hope you dont need to use it, better you keep it than give it some folks who may not do what you think they will and you wont get your money back either! Your money in your bank, not used you leave the money to whoever you choose.

I have looked at many schemes without exception they are expensive, to my mind, they go up every year and no guarantees you will get what you expect or a renewal when you look a bad bet.

to be fair, Nordic, the most expensive I have found up to date, does seem to be ok in this regard. However: 16 000 a month? Plus first $1500 expenses a year you pay yourself?...

[nong38]

Put money in the bank and hope you dont need to use it, better you keep it than give it some folks who may not do what you think they will and you wont get your money back either! Your money in your bank, not used you leave the money to whoever you choose.

I have looked at many schemes without exception they are expensive, to my mind, they go up every year and no guarantees you will get what you expect or a renewal when you look a bad bet.

to be fair, Nordic, the most expensive I have found up to date, does seem to be ok in this regard. However: 16 000 a month? Plus first $1500 expenses a year you pay yourself?...

THats it , they probably are abona fide company but 16000 bts a month is almost 200,000 a year, in 7 years you will have enough for a heart bi-pass! that without the thinking about the excess. Money in the bank looks the best option all round.

[phomsanuk]

Your all talking about the heart, what about CANCER $$$$$$$$$$, organ transplant $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$?

[Gary A]

I'd say that he would be far better off being self insured. Ten years ago I had health insurance with Liberty Mutual Group. It cost me 13,000 baht per year for full coverage and a million and a half baht limit per occurrence. They promised that it would never be canceled because of age. What they didn't tell me was they would price me out by drastically raising my premiums. They wanted 28,000 baht for the premium two years ago. I cancelled the policy.

I had one claim during the time I was insured. I had acute appendicitis. The total cost was 41,000 baht at a private hospital. They did pay with no questions asked. We are fortunate to have a good government hospital not too far from home and much cheaper than the private hospital. I'll just take my chances.

[exeter]

I'd say that he would be far better off being self insured. Ten years ago I had health insurance with Liberty Mutual Group. It cost me 13,000 baht per year for full coverage and a million and a half baht limit per occurrence. They promised that it would never be canceled because of age. What they didn't tell me was they would price me out by drastically raising my premiums. They wanted 28,000 baht for the premium two years ago. I cancelled the policy.

I had one claim during the time I was insured. I had acute appendicitis. The total cost was 41,000 baht at a private hospital. They did pay with no questions asked. We are fortunate to have a good government hospital not too far from home and much cheaper than the private hospital. I'll just take my chances.

So self insured with your money in bank, thats what I think is the best way forward too.

I saw some paperwork from the same insurance company and yes it rocketed but unlike you were told there was a cut off date, so they can always change the rules or price you out.

[cooked]

Your all talking about the heart, what about CANCER $$$$$$$$$$, organ transplant $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$?

yes and there are other diseases like Alzheimer, diabetes... as I stated above, I have an emergency way out - I have the luxury of deciding to die back in a nice clean, sterile and unfriendly hospital in Switzerland (medivac insurance, 1200 Baht a year) rather than having my wife help me on my way out in our own home. If you can't do something like this, you need a big emergency fund. It's all very well being able to pay for treatment for an urgent situation, but after a certain age you have to reckon with having a second and third occurrence or a chronic illness developing, rapidly eroding your funds.

Self insurance is indeed the way to go I think, but you are making a wager with fate. It's all very well saying, when you are healthy (and an optimist), well ok so I die at home, but when the time comes, you may well find yourself desperately looking for a way out.

[exeter]

Your all talking about the heart, what about CANCER $$$$$$$$$$, organ transplant $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$?

yes and there are other diseases like Alzheimer, diabetes... as I stated above, I have an emergency way out - I have the luxury of deciding to die back in a nice clean, sterile and unfriendly hospital in Switzerland (medivac insurance, 1200 Baht a year) rather than having my wife help me on my way out in our own home. If you can't do something like this, you need a big emergency fund. It's all very well being able to pay for treatment for an urgent situation, but after a certain age you have to reckon with having a second and third occurrence or a chronic illness developing, rapidly eroding your funds.

Self insurance is indeed the way to go I think, but you are making a wager with fate. It's all very well saying, when you are healthy (and an optimist), well ok so I die at home, but when the time comes, you may well find yourself desperately looking for a way out.

Insurance works on your fears, life is a gamble. You pay your money and take your choice. Eat sensibly, drink sensibly, enjoy life and hope for the best, non of us know what the future holds for us, influence what you can, prepare your reserves as best you can, now stop worrying and enjoy everyday as if it was your last because one day your are going to be right! Edited April 13, 2012 by exeter