Health Insurance

[Chilvers]

Hi all.....hope you had a happy Xmas and about to have a happy New Year....

Moving to Chiang Mai in January.....can't wait considering it's -3 here!!!

Was wondering about people's thoughts on Health/Medical insurance? Is it worth the £120/month for two adults and one child that i've been quoted so far, or is it worth taking the risk and paying privately if the incident occurs. Or does someone know of cheaper insurance with other companies.

Plus......anyone have any idea what it costs to have a baby out there (all the pre-post medical stuff)?

Your Thoughts - Philosophical or otherwise - would be appreciated

[geordie]

Hi Chilvers,

you would be better doing a search in the Health Body and Medicine, search for typical health costs in Thailand.

I presume that you are English as you have quoted your health insurance quote in pounds. You have not mentioned your wifes nationality.

From my experience in Thailand it is better to have some health insurance than wait until the incident happens then paying private.

I at one time did not have health cover and woke up in hospital, after being in a coma and on a life support machine for 5 days. In total i spent 3 weeks in hospital the cost was not that expensive considering what i would of have had to pay in other countries.

What you have to consider and think hard about is how your wife is going to feel if you have a bad accident, i know that my wife (Thai) was in a right state not knowing if i was going to wake up and how she was going to pay for the expenses.

The other question that you asked about pre-natal costs, well my wife sorted that out as i was away working most of the time, but my wife is Thai so i do not presume it cost that much.

Hope this helps you to make up your mind whether to get the cover or not.

Geordie

[Chilvers]

That's a great help Geordie.....thanks for taking the time to answer.

Really appreciated.

[Krub]

Hi all.....hope you had a happy Xmas and about to have a happy New Year....

Moving to Chiang Mai in January.....can't wait considering it's -3 here!!!

Was wondering about people's thoughts on Health/Medical insurance? Is it worth the £120/month for two adults and one child that i've been quoted so far, or is it worth taking the risk and paying privately if the incident occurs.  Or does someone know of cheaper insurance with other companies.

Plus......anyone have any idea what it costs to have a baby out there (all the pre-post medical stuff)?

Your Thoughts - Philosophical or otherwise - would be appreciated

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you plan to live in Thailand, I would check out the local plans available (Royal Sun, Thai Health Insurance) as they are suited to the level of cost of local medical care.

This goes both for the cover and the premiums.

Medical plans based outside of Thailand tends to be very good at cover but extremely expensive and not needed if you intend to use the services of local hospitals (even private ones)

Some of the local medical plans also cover you for up to 90 days out of Thailand

http://www.thaihealth.co.th/index_e.php

[OldAsiaHand]

BUPA has one of the most popular expat plans here, but my advice is not to buy anything but coverage for in-patient services and hospitalization. Medical costs are very, very low here by western standards. Paying for insurance to cover ordinary doctor visits is simply foolish.

[helitool]

I was in Chiang Mai end of last year and had a hernia operation at the Chiang Rai hospital. It cost me a total of $245 for a full operating room procedure and general anathesia with 5 technicans. They did a great job. That included 3 days in the VIP suite and a dental exam and cleaning.

I later went to see a GP in CM to have him check the incision as it healed and he didn't even charge me at all! Typical GP visit up north costs about 100 Baht.

Compare that to the $8,000 per year they wanted for health insurance here in the united States of Bush and you will understand why I am returning to Los permanently in a couple of months!

[OldAsiaHand]

My experience over the years has been that, as a generalization, most medical costs in Thailand have consistently run about 10-15% of the equivalent American costs for the same services. Also as a generalization, the qualitity of the services has been 85-95% as good. It's a hard parlay to top.

[Tywais]

Hi all.....hope you had a happy Xmas and about to have a happy New Year....

Was wondering about people's thoughts on Health/Medical insurance? Is it worth the £120/month for two adults and one child that i've been quoted so far, or is it worth taking the risk and paying privately if the incident occurs.  Or does someone know of cheaper insurance with other companies.

Plus......anyone have any idea what it costs to have a baby out there (all the pre-post medical stuff)?

Happy New Years to you Chilvers.

Local insurance would be a better option unless you plan on travelling outside of Th often and need international coverage. I pay about 14,000 Baht/year (BUPA) for one person (guess that is about £175/year. Baby birthing costs are around 30,000.00 Baht.

[Steve2UK]

I asked a similar question a while back and got a range of opinions - but I was quite struck by the number of people who do choose to self-insure (i.e. keep a cash reserve available) if they are not getting health insurance as part of an employment package. Previous topic here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=34645&hl=

[Cassandra]

My experience over the years has been that, as a generalization, most medical costs in Thailand have consistently run about 10-15% of the equivalent American costs for the same services. Also as a generalization, the qualitity of the services has been 85-95% as good. It's a hard parlay to top.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't think there's a correct answer fitting all in respect of comprehensive medical insurance for expats in Thailand.However I have known one or two catastrophic cases of expats without insurance who were almost financially ruined by enforced long term hospitalisation in Bangkok.To be precise in one case it was the Thai widow was left almost penniless after the expat's death following an extended coma.To sum up health care costs are modest in Thailand and it is a perfectly rational decision to "self insure", but do give a thought to worst case scenarios before making a final decision.Pnds 1500 per year may not be too high a price to pay for a family man.

[Phil Conners]

The problem with the insurances are the premiums are fairly high compared to the low medical costs in Thailand - yes, also for the local insurances such as Bupa.

Also, they have so many limitations and exceptions in their polices that you never actually can be sure they legally have to (and will) pay anything.

At best they pay 80-90% of the cost with a limiter on the total amount for any incident which isn't very high.

[TizMe]

At least by self-insuring you can be certain that the insurance company will pay up.

[Firefan]

He,he - except of course if the lumpsum was used for beers....

At least by self-insuring you can be certain that the insurance company will pay up.

[Chivas]

He,he - except of course if the lumpsum was used for beers....

At least by self-insuring you can be certain that the insurance company will pay up.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Re Birthing costs.

39,900 Baht fixed price in Bangkok Pattaya for pre arranged C section including 4 day 3 night vip room including food all/any extras and a bundle of goodies so big we had to get two bags to carry it all,when we went home.Superb.

In the theatre there were 13 of us including myself !