Bank Health Insurance - Worth While?

[xs650head]

G'Day All,

2nd Post - please forgive any stuff-ups!

I am 52 and intend returning to Thailand in the next few years to stay with my Thai wife and our son, we also intend bringing out my mother from the UK who will be close to 80 by then. I have been trying to work out the most economical and effective route to go as far as health insurance is concerned for my mother.

My wife has pointed out that there is health insurance available from some of the banks such as Bankok bank - has anyone tried this route and is it worth while or will you just get 'sorry but you're not covered for that' when you try to claim anything? Also is this available from any other banks?

Obviously you are only going to get what you pay for so as long as the policy is explained in full you should be aware of what is and what isn't covered ?!* Any experiences with this type of health insurance would be well apperciated as it could save us a lot of wasted time and money.

On the upside from what I can gather it seems to be a sort of savings scheeme where you pay in a set amount each month and if at the end you have not claimed you get a percentage back (this goes over 8 or 10 years I believe).

If anyone has this currently and has actually had tomake a claim I would be very greatful if you would share your experiences with us.

Thanks folks

Keith

[hadi8253]

In 2001 (58 years old) I chose Bupa Thailand as my health insurance. The benefit plan (Ruby), the guaranty of “life time” if I pay yearly my premium, the yearly amount for my premium, all this seemed to be OK.

It worsened in 2006 (63y). The premium raised yearly, in 2009 when I became 66 by almost 20 % also I did not make any claim. During the last 6 years the premium has almost doubled!

According to Bupa “medical inflation” and/or “age band” is responsible for the increase. My repeated question how much I will have to pay next year, when I will become 70 has after 9 (nine !) emails not yet been answered.

And it became really bad: My wife also insured by Bupa since 2001, never made a claim had a premium raise at 37,25 % when her age changed from 55 to 56 years.

The promise of “renewal is guaranteed for life” is easy done by Bupa. Bupa will raise the premium every year without any warning until you will be happy to leave this company …

Please feel free to contact me

((removed))

Edited July 30, 2012 by lopburi3
email removed per forum rules

[Soutpeel]

"my mother from the UK who will be close to 80"

considering the age of your mother, one would think you would be pressed to get any form of economical medical insurance policy for her, one assumes she may have a number of pre-existing conditions which will be exluded from the policy.

To be perfectly frank you may find no insurance company will even give her a policy

To move this forward I would be talking to the insurance companies, not banks as in fact all they are doing in most cases is acting as brokers for the insurance companies and taking a cut

[Jayman]

I was told by the manager at my local scb that health insurance is only available to Thais. Foreigners can get the emergency insurance which covers you in case of an accident and night even pay out a bit of you die but there is no coverage for health issues. They do have a savings program that they setup with a min deposit of 1 mil baht that they market as health insurance but the fact is that it's just a CD type account that pays interest for a term.

Getting health insurance for foreigners in most countries when they are older is very difficult if not impossible. Often times they will be happy to take your money but when it comes time to pay out then they will have a bunch of reasons why they don't have to pay you. Pre existing conditions is like their way out of nearly all claims especially when you are older.

[23962323]

As with everything,it is good to have a plan B. Medical evacuation is the one thing I would plump for if allowed insurance at reasonable rate. Buying two business seats on direct flight,showing up few minutes before flight may just pull something off,airlines will dump economy flyers like yesterday if ill ,but will have second thoughts if "upper class"

Travel to India or Malaysia if surgical needs are to be considered, fantastic treatment and savings.

[Sheryl]

AFAIK no local insurance company will issue a policy for an 80 year old (or even a 65 year old in most cases).

the health insurance policies of the banks have even lower age cut offs.

If you are a healthy 52 year old with no pre-existing conditions, you'll be able to get a policy and once you do, at all costs, maintain it. BUPA will keep you on if you enroll before certain age (I think 55? bvUt might be 50 so check) though the premiums will of course keep rising. Be aware that you may lose the option to upgrade your plan once you pass a certain age or have had any claims so it is worth going in at a high level of cover, don't go in low and assume you can upgrade later. And be prepared for the premiums being costly relative to the coverage they prov ide. Among other factors, the pool of people being insured is quite small since few Thais need or want it, being already covered under one fo the 3 schemes that between them provide essentially universal ocver for thai citizens.

For your Mother frankly the only thing you can do is self insure..an/or you might also be able to get say a year long "travel insurance" policy for her that includes medical evacuation as well as any needed emergency/urgent care while in Thailand, and at age 80 that's not a bad option for year 1, though you probably can't continue iot for more than a year unless she first goes back home.

Regardless, do put aside a generous amount of cash purely for medical costs for her.

Elsewhere on this forum you can find long discussions of issues surrounding eligibility under the UK NHS for people who moved overseas. Do a search for those threads and take careful note. while there are undoubtedly advantageous aspects to bringing your Mom here there are also definite down sides and having to pay out of pocket for health care needs is one of them.

[PoodMaiDai]

My Thai partner has been chasing 4000b from Siam Commercial health insurance for a year now. I've never seen such a run around in all of my life and can not fathom how difficult it would be to try to get reimbursed for a real amount. They have even claimed to have "lost" all of her information TWICE now, making her start the process all over.

Zero accountability here. Good luck.

[Soutpeel]

My Thai partner has been chasing 4000b from Siam Commercial health insurance for a year now. I've never seen such a run around in all of my life and can not fathom how difficult it would be to try to get reimbursed for a real amount. They have even claimed to have "lost" all of her information TWICE now, making her start the process all over.

Zero accountability here. Good luck.

this is one of the reasons my work medical insurance is with a company out of the UK, and claims managed/paid out from the UK

[xs650head]

OK folks,

It seems that the general view is that my mother will be best off saving her own funds for any health issues.

Thanks for your replies and opinions.

Keith