Thai Health Ministry Considering Plan To Force Foreign Tourists To Buy Insurance

[moe666]

Ban tourists over 50 or certify they are wealthy before they are allowed to get a ticket to Thailand.

Don't most tourists take out some sort of travel insurance covering illness and emergency treatment?

Why over 50, most of the emergency around Chiang Mai are the younger crowd falling off motorscooters are waterfalls.

[Marlow999]

Another money money making idea of Mr. T's goverment. Almost all Europeans have insurance anyway. Not even the very strict homeland security ask me for insurance, when i entered the US. BTW, i was in Cambo last week. Its getting better and better. Peaple in Phnom Penh speak english and i was suprised. Some students speak fluently french as well. Peaple in Phnom Penh drive Lexus instead of Vios or D Max. Another5 year. Lets see whats going on. Sometime i get the feeling that they think Thailand is the only and Nr. 1 Tourist destination in this world. Did they ever been in miami, the caribean islands, Rio or somewhere else to get an idea how for examle, a beachroad should look?

I would imagine it's the massive numbers of Chinese, Indian, Russian and Asian tourists that they're concerned about, not the relatively few European tourists. It seems a bit rich for you to be criticising the level of English in Thailand when your own written English is not eaxctly perfect!

Eaxctly, as you state. I don't think.

[Donnie Brasco]

Trial buffoon ?

[meaowma]

The best way to get the money to the right people fast is to add Baht 300 to the bar fine and let the bar donate it to the hospitals - that works

[steffi]

Can anybody remember the last time they went to a so called "public" hospital and was reasonably charged?

Edited March 13, 2013 by steffi

[Finkelstein]

What about the Scandinavians who are covered under their government coverage?

I think this guy needs to do a bit more research.

Danish peoples are NOT covered in Thailand (outside EU actually) - living in Thailand You have to buy health insurance just as anybody else here... But there are a danish guy in Rayong right now, in government hospital, without proper insurance and no means to pay the bill, so actually not all that off track to look into the problem...

I do however agree that topping the airticket is a bit off, or hotel bills even, but when apply for a visa - either add on insurance or ask for prove that the applicant is insured would be OK to me...

.

[kingstonkid]

Damn I could swear I said this would happen in a thread about health insurance and was told I was crazy. mmmmm maybe not as crazy as people think

[Phil Conners]

Hm, afaik if you don't have insurance you have to pay cash. Don't see what difference this will make to the hospitals budget.

[Marlow999]

Ban tourists over 50 or certify they are wealthy before they are allowed to get a ticket to Thailand.

Don't most tourists take out some sort of travel insurance covering illness and emergency treatment?

Why over 50, most of the emergency around Chiang Mai are the younger crowd falling off motorscooters are waterfalls.

Probably because he's under 50.

[steffi]

"I thought it would be ok to run him over because I knew he had insurance."

[Marlow999]

Can anybody remember the last time they went to a so called "public" hospital and was reasonably charged?

Yes.

[heybruce]

Ban tourists over 50 or certify they are wealthy before they are allowed to get a ticket to Thailand.

Don't most tourists take out some sort of travel insurance covering illness and emergency treatment?

If you want to reduce hospital costs incurred by uninsured tourists, you should ban motorbike rentals That would also make roads a little safer.

[sirchai]

"often to tourists incapable of paying"

.

I've seen two such cases, where two old men without any insurance got very sick and the hospitals never received any money. Flying to Thailand without an insurance is like driving without a helmet.

It's true that many tourists are not incapable of paying their hospital bills. Seems to be a good idea, if continued by people with a brain. Tourists with no travel insurance can buy one from Mr. T........and his younger sister in Dubai, aeeh at the airport....--

Edited March 13, 2013 by sirchai

[Jingthing]

Hm, afaik if you don't have insurance you have to pay cash. Don't see what difference this will make to the hospitals budget.

I think this is politics.

Soaking foreigners/blaming foreigners is always a winner.

More likely, there has been a lot of BAD PR on Thailand when tourists go for care here in a crisis and can't pay and the hospitals don't treat them. Makes Thailand look uncivilized. I think this is political payback for that bad PR internationally.

[PhilipCook]

This reminds me of the days when I visited Czechoslovakia in the summers of 1986-1989. They used to require a daily minimum spend and you would have to prove it on the spot at any moment. The government on the one hand tries to revv up the volume of tourists coming here while at the same time complains that foreigners don't have the money to pay for medical services? Aside from doubting validity/significance of this claim, why not target tourists that you want instead of flooding the country with the whole range of tourists. What we have now are the millionaires and the folks too cheap to eat a proper meal and a proper restaurant. Is that really what you need, people coming here and buying supermarket items to cook in their hotel rooms/guest houses? Two nights ago, went to a supermarket in Pattaya and spotted a group of more than 10 tourists drinking tall beers having supermarket food within the supermarket! The TAT is doing a great job attracting everyone to visit Thailand, maybe now they should raise the bar to encourage quality tourists to frequent the country. Or we can do it the way Bhutan does it, limit the number of tourists and require the daily spending amount.....look no further than Pattaya to see what encouraging everyone to come here entails.

[cuddleypete]

Ban tourists over 50 or certify they are wealthy before they are allowed to get a ticket to Thailand.

Don't most tourists take out some sort of travel insurance covering illness and emergency treatment?

Why over 50, most of the emergency around Chiang Mai are the younger crowd falling off motorscooters are waterfalls.

Probably because he's under 50.

yes agree he probably under 50 , and is he saying that once you get to 50 you are to old to travel ?

[chatette]

Another mouth-before-mind idea that's impossible to implement given many people don't need visas to enter Thailand and buy air tickets online. Blah blah balh.

[sirchai]

Ban tourists over 50 or certify they are wealthy before they are allowed to get a ticket to Thailand.

Don't most tourists take out some sort of travel insurance covering illness and emergency treatment?

If you want to reduce hospital costs incurred by uninsured tourists, you should ban motorbike rentals That would also make roads a little safer.

And tell foreigners to stop to drink and drive?----

[davejones]

"...buy insurance by imposing additional fees on air fare or a hotel tax".

Some immediate difficulties with implementation spring to mind:

• How will fees be levied on foreign airlines, and how will they distinguish between tourists and people transiting Thailand? This would be enormously time-consuming
• A hotel tax would by no means encompass all tourists, not to mention foreigners who stay semi-permanently in apartments etc on tourist or non-i or ed visas

This has not been thought through.

I think many have missed the point, or maybe are trying to be pedantic. Levy an extra 500-1000 baht fee for each passenger that arrives by air, and that can be put towards emergency health costs. But it won't cover expats, people arriving by land, etc? So what. The purpose is to have a simple scheme to raise the money. Money is already levied on each passenger that arrives, so it would be very easy to levy a little extra. An easy solution. Doesn't need much thinking through, as some people think. It doesn't matter if everyone is covered. That's not how things work in the real world.

[merijn]

There is already double pricing in most of the hospitals.

I would think that this would offset the losses they make on the farangs unpaid bills.

Otherwise the double pricing can be demolished when the new health insurance come into effect.

[NewlyMintedThai]

EU requires it for Thai visitors, doesn't it?

[473geo]

Can anybody remember the last time they went to a so called "public" hospital and was reasonably charged?

Yes a few years ago I had a wound cleaned 30+ stiches all done 800 baht.......I gave them 1000......I had insurance didn't bother claiming

[sirchai]

The best way to get the money to the right people fast is to add Baht 300 to the bar fine and let the bar donate it to the hospitals - that works

Maybe for people like you, it does.

[BLUE LINE]

What about the Scandinavians who are covered under their government coverage?

I think this guy needs to do a bit more research.

Scandinavians are covered only within the European Union by their government

Here they have to buy private Insurance !

as far as I know .

[jitenshaman]

I don't know of many people who have been able to get out of a hospital without paying, if they didn't pay, they don;t release them or give back their passport, this sounds more like a plan to charge higher prices to not have to tax locals higher for their medical care

yes, a complete joke, farang don't get any kind of treatment in hospitals here without showing a credit card, insurance card, or some sort of proof of payment prior to being treated.

[Phronesis]

Then perhaps the Thai Government can also pay me when I make my blood donations at Red Cross...

[gamba]

What about the Scandinavians who are covered under their government coverage?

I think this guy needs to do a bit more research.

Thailand are not in the EU.

[drdoom6996]

Ban tourists over 50 or certify they are wealthy before they are allowed to get a ticket to Thailand.

Don't most tourists take out some sort of travel insurance covering illness and emergency treatment?

Why not ban tourists over 25, then you would not be so quick to spout out a number. You will be 50 someday. Or will you drink yourself dead before then??????????????????????

[NoshowJones]

40 % of this hospital visits is made by expats living in the country. A higher fee on air fare and hotels does not effect the expats living in Thailand.

But if these fees are implemented does that mean as an expat living in the Kingdom we get free medical care?

Or will the next rule be: A proof of medical insurance when you apply for a visa?

As far as I'm aware, you can't get medical insurance in Thailand unless you are under 60 years old, so that would mean once expats reach 60 they will have to go back to their own countries as they won't get a visa to live here with no medical insurance. I don't think so, Thailand does not want us, but they want our money.

[RayHaas]

How does this work for business such as tour operators? By law in Thailand any Tour operator that deals with Tourists needs to medically insure their guests. So if the Health Minister forces this onto incoming tourists will it mean that the tour operators no longer need to provide them with medical insurance?