Giving Birth In Bangkok - No Insurance

[MaciejKlimowicz]

Hi,

Me (Polish) and my girlfriend (Indian) are expecting a Baby - coming in January. We live in Bangkok

She doesn't have any insurance here in Thailand. I have a Thai Social Security card but it doesn;t cover the cost of any prenatal checkups and form what I know - jut half of the costs of birth.

I'm in the process of checking birth packages in private hospitals and so far I see that we'd have to pay form 20.000 to 50.000 B for natural birth and from 30.00 to 70.000 for CS.

Can we use a public Thai hospital? We're a bit worried about communication problems as we don't speak Thai.

Or maybe it’s best to go back to India and have the baby delivered there, with national insurance in case of any complications?

I suppose it's to late to get my GF any kind of insurance...

Thanks for any suggestions,

Mac

[Mario2008]

You can use a Thai public hospital. As you ppoint out, a private hospital will have the advantage of more English speaking staff. But that is not to say that public hospitals do not have English speaking staff. Certainly doctors will speak some English. You simply have to shop around a bit and might want to try a public hospital connected to a university.

[tutsiwarrior]

in our small town in Suphanburi standard procedures like uncomplicated deliveries and appendectomies are not problem...but if you are not thai there will be a charge which would probably be the same anywhere in the public health care system...

a local doctor can do a pre-natal exam including ultrasound and if there are no irregularities then just go for it...returning to India for the birth will just stress yer wife with no guarantee of a better arrangement than what's available in Thailand and there are transportation costs to consider and if she is far gone they might not let her on the airplane...just relax...

I don't want to sound glib but I'm here at home with the step daughter and she's 9 months with full pre-natal care and the birth can happen at any time...and here she is on a motor bike without worries (and then tutsi shouts: 'get outta there! and get back into bed ye stupid little shit!!...') she has given birth before and knows the signs and the local government hospital is only 5 minutes away...and the wife just folds her arms and looks at the ceiling...

Edited June 15, 2012 by tutsiwarrior

[MaciejKlimowicz]

Thanks for your replies,

I tried contacting some private hospitals but communication problems made it impossible to learn anyhting so far - maybe insted of calling I should visit myself.

Is there anyone who can suggest a specyfic public hospital in Bangkok good for baby birth? Did you haver a good personal experience with any of them?

[edwinclapham]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/128127-having-a-baby-in-thai-hospital/page__st__100

Have you gone through the above link.. one post //109 is pertinent to Bangkok. I havent read through them all.

Good luck

[MaciejKlimowicz]

http://www.thaivisa....l/page__st__100

Have you gone through the above link.. one post //109 is pertinent to Bangkok. I havent read through them all.

Good luck

Thanx, I've read through this topic but most reccomendations are for hospitals outside Bangkok. Anyone had a good experience with a public hospital IN BANGKOK?

cheers!

Mac

[BuddhistDruid]

http://www.thaivisa....l/page__st__100

Have you gone through the above link.. one post //109 is pertinent to Bangkok. I havent read through them all.

Good luck

Thanx, I've read through this topic but most reccomendations are for hospitals outside Bangkok. Anyone had a good experience with a public hospital IN BANGKOK?

cheers!

Mac

Stop by any one of the thousands of language schools you see in Bangkok. Contract with a translator who for 1000 baht per day will fall all over themselves to help you out, especially if they like children. Then go to Chulalongkorn or Siriraj. The doctors mostly speak English so your wife will be fine during the delivery. The nurses and administrative staff not so much. But that is why you bring your own translator. If the only reason you would pay for an expensive Western hospital is for English language support, well...it's significantly easier to outsource that one particular issue.

[2008bangkok]

Me n the mrs have had 2 children in the police hospital in chillin, nice clean, clean, friendly an at most only 10k, although my mrs is Thai you should have no problem not speaking Thai, we started to go there 4 weeks before the arrival instead of local GP, don't forget also if you are a tax payer then you should get around 12,000 baht back from the tax people when you have a baby, you don't need to be Thai to get that you just need to pay tax

[MaciejKlimowicz]

Me n the mrs have had 2 children in the police hospital

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into that. I Have to say I tried getting in touch with them before but when I arrived there in person they told me to call the next day as the working hours were just form 8 to 12 AM. When I called no one could understand English.

cheers

[David48]

... don't forget also if you are a tax payer then you should get around 12,000 baht back from the tax people when you have a baby, you don't need to be Thai to get that you just need to pay tax

Made me think.

I don't work in Thailand but I own shares there and according ly pay the 10% non-resident witholding tax ... I wonder if my situation would qualify for a rebate?

If not, my gf is a tax payer ... how does that work?

[gregb]

... don't forget also if you are a tax payer then you should get around 12,000 baht back from the tax people when you have a baby, you don't need to be Thai to get that you just need to pay tax

Made me think.

I don't work in Thailand but I own shares there and according ly pay the 10% non-resident witholding tax ... I wonder if my situation would qualify for a rebate?

If not, my gf is a tax payer ... how does that work?

It comes from the Social Security Fund. Not taxes. You have to be employed and making monthly contributions to the fund. If your GF is employed at a legitimate company that does withholding, then she would qualify. Otherwise, you are not covered.

[2008bangkok]

... don't forget also if you are a tax payer then you should get around 12,000 baht back from the tax people when you have a baby, you don't need to be Thai to get that you just need to pay tax

Made me think.

I don't work in Thailand but I own shares there and according ly pay the 10% non-resident witholding tax ... I wonder if my situation would qualify for a rebate?

If not, my gf is a tax payer ... how does that work?

It comes from the Social Security Fund. Not taxes. You have to be employed and making monthly contributions to the fund. If your GF is employed at a legitimate company that does withholding, then she would qualify. Otherwise, you are not covered.

Not sure if it is tax or social security, i would have thought it would have been the tax people as the maximum any person can pay for social security is 750 baht pe month which mean eveyone who claims gets more that than they paid in SS..

anyway the place is down a little sub soi off silom, the one next to Kbank, maybe soi 2 or soi 4,

OP best to just go in, one problem you may have is language barrier so that is what needs to be weighed up cost v communication , if you go private you can almost guarentee a good level of english or if you go goverment you can almost guarentee a low level of english but either way you will get a good level of care

[draftvader]

Thanks for your replies,

I tried contacting some private hospitals but communication problems made it impossible to learn anyhting so far - maybe insted of calling I should visit myself.

Is there anyone who can suggest a specyfic public hospital in Bangkok good for baby birth? Did you haver a good personal experience with any of them?

When my wife and I (both English) were expecting our 1st last year we did the rounds both private and public. We can highly recommend Siriraj hospital. The staff there were pleasant, friendly and caring. However this DOES come with a warning. You will NOT be allowed to be present at the birth as this is hospital policy.

For us, however, this did not matter as the floods changed the course of our birth plan and I ended up delivering my daughter myself in Phuket (not exactly the attended home-birth in BKK we had planned). This said we ALWAYS had Siriraj as our back-up and were assured by our, excellent, obstetrician that we could turn up at the hospital without prior notice (all medical records from the pregnancy were there) and have our baby naturally. The ob in question actively promotes natural birth in both Siriraj and the private hospital she works in.

Since our daughter's birth we have used Siriraj's excellent pediatrics department for vaccinations and healthcare for our girl and have received wonderful, attentive care.

The pre-natal health section is next to the A&E department so start there and they'll take you to the maternity building (huge and modern enough).

Good luck with it.

[draftvader]

On another note. Most insurance doesn't cover pregnancy and birth anyway, so that was never an option for you anyway.

[MaciejKlimowicz]

Shame about the "no father present" policy in Thailand. Today I saw my baby for the first time on the ultrasonograph (Bangna Hospital). What a feeling! And the nurses didn't want to let me in - it was the doctor who asked my GF halfway through the examination if I wanted to take a look too.

Anyway - still not sure about the hospital. We do our prenatal checkups in Bangna hospital as it's nearby and they speak a little English. One visit with medications, ultrasonograph and some test is around 1000B. Their birth package is 35k for natural and around 40k for cs. It is a bit expensive for us and they don't allow the father in the room se we keep looking.

If you have any experience with a public or not so pricy private hispital in Bangna / Phrakhanong area (or anywhere near the BTS), please let me know

As for the insurance - Thai Social Seciurity comes in handy - they do refund the birth costs (from what I know, with just me insured we should get around 12k back) and give a nice maternity leave. Without it we're left with nothing.

cheers!

Mac

[Fgis]

Hello,

I wonder if once already pregnant a Thai can find a health insurance that will cover any problem related to pregnancy ?

Thanks.

[Mario2008]

Hello,

I wonder if once already pregnant a Thai can find a health insurance that will cover any problem related to pregnancy ?

Thanks.

You might be beter off in the insurence forum, bt normally a pre-existing condition is not insured. But she might fall under one of the healthcare scemes, giving free healthcare at goverment hospitals.

[Sheryl]

Almost all Thais are able to get free care under either the social security scheme (if employed in the formal sector) or universal health care ("gold card" or "30 baht scheme") system.

For which reason few Thais have private insurance. (And no, private insurance it won't cover pregnancy related expenses if pregnant at the time of enrolment. Often doesn't cover maternity costs even if pregnancy occurs later).

[dave111223]

Shame about the "no father present" policy in Thailand. Today I saw my baby for the first time on the ultrasonograph (Bangna Hospital). What a feeling! And the nurses didn't want to let me in - it was the doctor who asked my GF halfway through the examination if I wanted to take a look too.

There is no "no father present" policy in Thailand; I was in the delivery room for both my kids, and went to all the prenatal doctors visits; you have been misinformed.

Sounds like a nurse just blowing smoke up your arse; in the unlikely event that your hospital does have some kind of rules preventing fathers from being around I'd suggest you switch to a different hospital.

Edited December 4, 2012 by dave111223