Is There Free Western Medicine Clinic ?

[duiter]

Hi,

Is there free western medicine clinic ?

Where ? Website ?

I mean free consultation and free prescription letter ?

Is Thian Fa Foundation offering free modern ( western ) medicine clinic ?

http://www.thailandtatler.com/tag/thian-fa-foundation/

Thanks

[ThailandBert]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

[Soutpeel]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

[DP25]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

A lot of people prefer to just pay out of pocket because of the low cost here. I don't know what's up with the OP though

[chiang mai]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

A lot of people prefer to just pay out of pocket because of the low cost here. I don't know what's up with the OP though

It's one thing to self insure but that doesn't mean looking for free care when you get sick!

[TomTao]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

I'm very glad I took out insurance with a local company about six months ago, I'm coming up on two weeks in hospital, one week in Chumphon which included an ambulance trip to Surat Thani for an MRI, ambulance transfer to Bangkok where I have been for one week in Lerksin Hospital, the last four days in a private room all paid for by insurance, plus the insurance pays me 1000 baht per night I am in hospital. But no, there are no free clinics or medicines in Thailand.

P.s. Since Lerksin is a public hospital I have to pay first and claim later, but all will be reimbursed.

Sent from my GT-I9003

Edited October 18, 2012 by TomTao

[harryfrompattaya]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

Most farangs here come from counties with free Health Care and do believe they should ever pay for it. Maybe they should assistance from the UN

[Soutpeel]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

A lot of people prefer to just pay out of pocket because of the low cost here. I don't know what's up with the OP though

OK...but go and have a heart attack and end up in ICU and need to take medication for the rest of your life...that aint cheap very relavant considering the age demographic of TV

Edited October 18, 2012 by Soutpeel

[Soutpeel]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

I'm very glad I took out insurance with a local company about six months ago, I'm coming up on two weeks in hospital, one week in Chumphon which included an ambulance trip to Surat Thani for an MRI, ambulance transfer to Bangkok where I have been for one week in Lerksin Hospital, the last four days in a private room all paid for by insurance, plus the insurance pays me 1000 baht per night I am in hospital. But no, there are no free clinics or medicines in Thailand.

P.s. Since Lerksin is a public hospital I have to pay first and claim later, but all will be reimbursed.

Sent from my GT-I9003

And if you didnt have the insurance how much would you be in the hole for about now ?

[chiang mai]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

A lot of people prefer to just pay out of pocket because of the low cost here. I don't know what's up with the OP though

OK...but go and have a heart attack and end up in ICU and need to take medication for the rest of your life...that aint cheap very relavant considering the age demographic of TV

That'll be 176K Baht for the balloon and stent and 1,700 a month for the Crestor and the Plavix, weigh that against goodness how much in premiums over ten years and the poster has a point. BTW I'm one of those who self insures and the foregoing are my actual numbers, overall I reckon I'm ahead of the game by some 500k over ten years.

Edited October 18, 2012 by chiang mai

[thenervoussurgeon]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

Thats all very well to say ,but who will insure someone who is in their late 60s? when i came here 7 years ago the cheapest insurance i could get (and that did not cover pre existing ) was over two thousand pounds a year ,so if i am now taken ill i have that 14 thousand pounds to use.

[TomTao]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

I'm very glad I took out insurance with a local company about six months ago, I'm coming up on two weeks in hospital, one week in Chumphon which included an ambulance trip to Surat Thani for an MRI, ambulance transfer to Bangkok where I have been for one week in Lerksin Hospital, the last four days in a private room all paid for by insurance, plus the insurance pays me 1000 baht per night I am in hospital. But no, there are no free clinics or medicines in Thailand.

P.s. Since Lerksin is a public hospital I have to pay first and claim later, but all will be reimbursed.

Sent from my GT-I9003

And if you didnt have the insurance how much would you be in the hole for about now ?

At least 100,000 baht, MRI 8,500, private hospital in Chumphon 43,000, ambulance tranfer to Bangkok (two drivers and two nurses) 45,000 plus the total cost of the hospital I am in now. If O needed back surgery you could add at least 100,000 in the public hospital or at least 250,000 in a budget private hospital.

Sent from my GT-I9003

Edited October 18, 2012 by TomTao

[Soutpeel]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

Thats all very well to say ,but who will insure someone who is in their late 60s? when i came here 7 years ago the cheapest insurance i could get (and that did not cover pre existing ) was over two thousand pounds a year ,so if i am now taken ill i have that 14 thousand pounds to use.

No medical insurance policy will cover a pre-existing condition, whether your 60 or 21....if somebody ends up with a serious medical condition were one doesnt have recourse to free medical treatment one ruin themselves financially literally in a heart beat.

14, 000 quid is not a great deal of money in circumstances like this even in Thailand once you start paying for medical treament and what happens if you land in ICU here, no insurance, no money, then what ?

One assumes you are from the UK and you could argue you would go back to the UK for treatment, but if you are in an ICU and need a "medical" flight to the UK, who is going to pay for that, as a lot of airlines will not touch somebody unless their accompanied by a doctor..etc

A lot of TV posters suggest Thai's are "stupid" because they dont think about tomorrow, but one could suggest the same thing of large numbers farangs, certainly of the typical age demographic who live in Thailand that dont provide or make provision for medical treatment in the country they are living in....I just cant figure that one out

[pigeonjake]

as some know i live out in the village,

i had a chest infection last year, and seeing as i get asthma we went to the local clinic, most villages have them like a small hospital,

anyway the doctor gave me the once over, gave me some tablets a new asthma pump and when i said how much he said nothing,

ill have to ask the wife a little more i never thought about it till this tred to be honest, but at the time i said to the wife why i didnt have to pay and she said she pays the 20bht thing, now i dont know if she does or even can pay this for me, but i didnt have to pay,

or weather im now excepted as part of the village, i dont know, but thats how it was,

jake

[Tim207]

as some know i live out in the village,

i had a chest infection last year, and seeing as i get asthma we went to the local clinic, most villages have them like a small hospital,

anyway the doctor gave me the once over, gave me some tablets a new asthma pump and when i said how much he said nothing,

ill have to ask the wife a little more i never thought about it till this tred to be honest, but at the time i said to the wife why i didnt have to pay and she said she pays the 20bht thing, now i dont know if she does or even can pay this for me, but i didnt have to pay,

or weather im now excepted as part of the village, i dont know, but thats how it was,

jake

I never paid more than 40 baht for the village doctor to take care of various minor wounds, usually free, but once the 40 baht when I needed meds. The time I needed stitches they sent me to the amphuer hospital and they charged 500 baht there. That was a fun experience. Everyone was teasing the doctor because the doctor in charge had stepped out and just her luck I walk in and her first stitches on a real patient ever was a farang. She was so nervous she was shaking. It still makes me laugh thinking about it.

[JSixpack]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

Most farangs here come from counties with free Health Care and do believe they should ever pay for it. Maybe they should assistance from the UN

That health care wasn't free there, as they paid taxes all their lives to pay for it. Obviously in Thailand they paid no tax or at least nothing in proportion to what they did in their homelands, so there's hardly any reason here to expect not to pay out-of-pocket here in the absence of insurance.

Edited October 19, 2012 by JSixpack

[thenervoussurgeon]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

Thats all very well to say ,but who will insure someone who is in their late 60s? when i came here 7 years ago the cheapest insurance i could get (and that did not cover pre existing ) was over two thousand pounds a year ,so if i am now taken ill i have that 14 thousand pounds to use.

No medical insurance policy will cover a pre-existing condition, whether your 60 or 21....if somebody ends up with a serious medical condition were one doesnt have recourse to free medical treatment one ruin themselves financially literally in a heart beat.

14, 000 quid is not a great deal of money in circumstances like this even in Thailand once you start paying for medical treament and what happens if you land in ICU here, no insurance, no money, then what ?

One assumes you are from the UK and you could argue you would go back to the UK for treatment, but if you are in an ICU and need a "medical" flight to the UK, who is going to pay for that, as a lot of airlines will not touch somebody unless their accompanied by a doctor..etc

A lot of TV posters suggest Thai's are "stupid" because they dont think about tomorrow, but one could suggest the same thing of large numbers farangs, certainly of the typical age demographic who live in Thailand that dont provide or make provision for medical treatment in the country they are living in....I just cant figure that one out

I did not say i had "only" 14 thousand pounds ,just that was what i had saved so far by not having insurance,i can afford all costs ,but what i said was that you cannot get insurance over a certain age .

[BigJohnnyBKK]

To the OP - your question displays a breathtaking level of naivety and ignorance. What on earth would motivate anyone in Thailand to offer free health care to foreigners?

If you're spending any amount of time here, I believe you need to spend some serious time/energy learning how things really work in the Land of Smiles.

Especially for those getting on in age, we have only three choices here:

a. paying whatever is required for private health insurance premiums to get us the coverage we need

b. having enough savings to self-insure - pay out of pocket for whatever may come up

c. depend on (take advantage of) the kindness of family/friends and/or the Thai socialized medicine system

Whatever combination of these three we rely on, in most cases we need to ultimately accept the fact of objective reality - we all are going to die, and it's quite possible (for anyone) that we will have significant pain and suffering from serious accident or illness along the way.

This truth can only be ameliorated by having a lot of money, certainly not eliminated.

If the resources available to you for the three options above aren't sufficient for your anticipated needs relative to your level of anxiety, you'd be much better off to remain living in your presumably wealthier/more generous (foolish) society - living in Thailand definitely increases your risks in this regard.

Edited October 19, 2012 by BigJohnnyBKK

[Soutpeel]

I did not say i had "only" 14 thousand pounds ,just that was what i had saved so far by not having insurance,i can afford all costs ,but what i said was that you cannot get insurance over a certain age .

My comments were not directed at you personally, just using the numbers you gave as an example...

I have see first hand one or two examples over the years of people who have lived under the NHS their whole lives moved to a foreign country which has no recourse to "free" medical treatment, get sick and literally wipe themselves out financially as they had no medical insurance, in these particular cases, the individuals were well under 60 and could afford the insurance costs, but they didnt want to spend the money and as a result they had to rely on family, friends who had to put their hands in their pockets to pay for the treatment

[pigeonjake]

big jonny,

i do have insurance for in the event that i do become ill,

at the moment im only 52 and still quite fit, and still work,

i was just stating that i went to the local clinic, i wasnt taking advantage of them, when we asked how much they said nothing, for the tablets and a new ventalin inhaler,

we take our children there for there checks ect,

i dont think this would make any difference, but i have taken them fish for there ponds and flowers for the garden,,lol,

jake

[BigJohnnyBKK]

pigeonjake

I would argue from an abstract ethical POV that you are taking advantage, but of course they're OK with it so up to you.

Perhaps making a corresponding donation to a free clinic targeted at the poorest locals would be a nice gesture if/when you can afford it.

[SomTumTiger]

You pay for medicine here. no free consultations or treatments. Either the Government hospital or private. medical insurance is very much a requirement.

This is the one thing I cant understand about a lot of farangs in Thailand....they move to a foreign country and have no recourse to free medical services/treatment and yet they dont take out any form of medical insurance

Thats all very well to say ,but who will insure someone who is in their late 60s? when i came here 7 years ago the cheapest insurance i could get (and that did not cover pre existing ) was over two thousand pounds a year ,so if i am now taken ill i have that 14 thousand pounds to use.

If you can't afford it, don't move to Thailand.

[kevvy]

why ask a question like that , didn't you think of health expense when you came here , i know its cheap but you still have to pay for it ..or did you really think this is the cheapest place on earth ...My electric bill is more than my health cover and I need electric power so that means i need my health cover more as its cheaper.

[citizen33]

Why do so many expats in Thailand lack easy access to healthcare? Is it just that they are unwilling to pay for a necessary service? The core problem is that voluntary private insurance is not a good solution for older people, whose actuarially-calculated risks will be higher than for younger people. This is why the entrepreneurial US system has Medicare, and other schemes that give a big role to private insurers, like the Netherlands, have a separate scheme for older people. Putting things another way you need risk pooling in any scheme for older people, because leaving everything to the private insurance market will mean that people with pre-existing conditions or past a particular age threshold are left without coverage. Unfortunately, there is nothing like this on the horizon for expats in Thailand, and too many - especially in the over-70 group - are left in a position where staying means taking a gamble about health care.

Is it unreasonable for these people to be looking to the Thai state to help? Many do pay some taxes, including the 'sin' taxes that help fund health promotion. Moreover, there is a view that a society's willingness to provide at least some healthcare says something about its moral standing. Even the US guarantees life-saving emergency treatment. I wouldn't see the Thai government moving very fast very soon, but there have been recent moves to provide care for the children of stateless people and I'd guess there might be some movement on emergency care for all.

Edited October 19, 2012 by citizen33

[1bbcd5]

I'm awesome like that!

[Beetlejuice]

They have 3 medical tariffs here in Thailand:

Pay, suffer or die.

[Soutpeel]

Is it unreasonable for these people to be looking to the Thai state to help? Many do pay some taxes, including the 'sin' taxes that help fund health promotion. Moreover, there is a view that a society's willingness to provide at least some healthcare says something about its moral standing. Even the US guarantees life-saving emergency treatment. I wouldn't see the Thai government moving very fast very soon, but there have been recent moves to provide care for the children of stateless people and I'd guess there might be some movement on emergency care for all.

To be perfectly blunt yes it is unreasonable to expect the Thai state to help for free, Most farangs, and note I say most..do not pay any injcome tax in Thailand at all

Even in countries were there is "free" medical treatment, this in not free someone has paid for it via tax deductions etc, and look at the response from people who have lived in the UK all their lives, worked paid their taxes etc....they get rather upset when the "immigrants" arrive in the UK trying to claim free medical care, housing, benefits etc.

The situation is no different in Thailand, why should someone who is not a Thai national and has never paid any form of tax in Thailand be taken care of by the Thai state for free ?

Someone who does work here as a farang and does pay tax etc, is entitled to Thai medical care, but yet most reputable employers also pay for private medical insurance for their employees....if any one as a farang is entitled to "free" medical in Thailand its those people.

I am sorry, large number of people have come from a nanny state where their every whine is catered for and they move to Thailand and expected the same service here, Thailand is not a nanny state but a 3rd world country (developing country for the TV PC) and it is very irresponsible for someone to move here without making prosvisions for their own health care to ensure they dont end up financially bankrupt and having to rely on family and friends goodwill to get them out of financial trouble when they do get seriously ill.

[citizen33]

My question was intended to be a rhetorical and did not mean that I think expats should get full access to free healthcare, say via the UCS. Yet almost all western countries do provide certain services to all because they consider it uncivilised to let people die when there is an immediate threat to life. Thailand is classified by the World Bank as an upper middle-income country, and I know there have been some discussions in the MoPH/ NHSO about whether or not some minimal services should be provided to all, such as emergency care. Incidentally quite a lot of finance for Thai healthcare, including the ring-fenced sin-tax revenues, comes from indirect taxes (VAT etc) that everybody living here pays.

I was interested that you didn't pick up the main point about private medical insurance and older people because that seems to be the big gap in your hard-line approach.

Edited October 19, 2012 by citizen33

[geriatrickid]

Thats all very well to say ,but who will insure someone who is in their late 60s? when i came here 7 years ago the cheapest insurance i could get (and that did not cover pre existing ) was over two thousand pounds a year ,so if i am now taken ill i have that 14 thousand pounds to use.

You played the odds and have done well so far. Unfortunately 14 thousand pounds doesn't go very far if you are in need of critical care and an air ambulance to Singapore or Hong Kong for specialized care. As you get older, the odds are unfortunately against you.

[Soutpeel]

I was interested that you didn't pick up the main point about private medical insurance and older people because that seems to be the big gap in your hard-line approach.

Oh I did pick up on the main point about insurance and older people... ...but based on my opinion you should know what my opinion would be without me saying it and some other posters had already come out and said it..

I dont believe I being hard line, I believe my opinion is a just common sense approach to living in a country where 1. you are not a citizen 2. you have no recourse to free medical care.