Poll: Expats, Do You Reckon That You Will Be Living In Thailand 10 Years From Now?

[Jingthing]

This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately. A potential exit plan from Thailand. Yes I have my reasons.

We all have our own reasons for why we might stay or leave. If you choose to vote in this poll, please feel welcome to post on the reasoning behind your personal future projection about whether or not you will still be living in Thailand 10 years from now.

If you choose to vote in the poll, please choose the answer CLOSEST to your opinion. I make no claims of providing all possible options that will fit everyone precisely.

If you are not living in Thailand currently, this poll doesn't apply to you and really no need to vote at all, even the null option.

Cheers.

Edited April 29, 2013 by Jingthing

[BookMan]

What is your exit plan JT?

[theblether]

I can see this being the Longest Goodbye in history.

[Jingthing]

What is your exit plan JT?

I would prefer to stay. However, I can't really buy decent health insurance here so that's the key factor for me. In the long run it seems like a decent chance I will either repatriate to the USA where it is now possible to get health care coverage (and at 65 which I will have reached in 10 years) USA Medicare. I am also interested in a few Latin American countries where I understand there are better options for obtaining health care even buying into government systems for retired expats. I am not old enough for these Latin American countries YET as not yet of pension age. The biggest thing chasing me from Thailand is the lack of access to health insurance for preexisting conditions AND the outrageous medical cost inflation and the shabby exploitative treatment of foreigners in the cost structure here. When I first moved here I thought the retail costs for health care were OK (and also quite frankly I had been misinformed about the health insurance access situation here) but now it is not OK and surely it will only get WORSE. I am doing my best to stay healthy but as we get older, you know the score. I voted 50/50 but after writing this post, I think its more honest to change my vote to probably leaving. Oh well!

Edited April 29, 2013 by Jingthing

[theblether]

What is your exit plan JT?

I would prefer to stay. However, I can't really buy decent health insurance here so that's the key factor for me. In the long run it seems like a decent chance I will either repatriate to the USA where it is now possible to get health care coverage (and at 65 which I will have reached in 10 years) USA Medicare. I am also interested in a few Latin American countries where I understand there are better options for obtaining health care. The biggest thing chasing me from Thailand is the lack of access to health insurance for preexisting conditions AND the outrageous medical cost inflation and the shabby exploitative treatment of foreigners in the cost structure here.

Well if it makes a blind bit of difference to you I think that's good thinking.

Old age never comes alone and if it gets to the point that you're disposable income is going on healthcare then that's not a life wherever you are.

[Dancealot]

Wish i could plan my whereabouts 10 years from now.

[Jingthing]

I really, really, do NOT want to leave. I am VERY comfortable here. I can't imagine ever being this comfortable anywhere else. So if I do feel I must leave, it will be very painful.

[theblether]

Wish i could plan my whereabouts 10 years from now.

Jingthing could have given the membership the option to say that they expect to move to Thailand within the next 10 years, but he's too busy trying to annoy us by saying that we don't count.

[theblether]

I really, really, do NOT want to leave. I am VERY comfortable here. I can't imagine ever being this comfortable anywhere else. So if I do feel I must leave, it will be very painful.

What's the options? Could you go back to work via the net? I believe your previous job would be compatible with that?

[Dancealot]

I really, really, do NOT want to leave. I am VERY comfortable here. I can't imagine ever being this comfortable anywhere else. So if I do feel I must leave, it will be very painful.

What's the options? Could you go back to work via the net? I believe your previous job would be compatible with that?

I can help you JT, hosting can be taken care off, for instance.

[Jingthing]

I really, really, do NOT want to leave. I am VERY comfortable here. I can't imagine ever being this comfortable anywhere else. So if I do feel I must leave, it will be very painful.

What's the options? Could you go back to work via the net? I believe your previous job would be compatible with that?

I am now completely unemployable. So I would be living in poverty in the U.S. which is why a Latin American option has continued appeal.

[lemoncake]

Personally i would not want to be here in 10 years, HOWEVER in my case i am stuck for at least 10-15 years due to having animals.

I am not the kind to leave my animals behind, so will stuck it out and see what life brings.

By the way, i am in late 30"s not married with no prospects on the horizon.

[Jingthing]

Wish i could plan my whereabouts 10 years from now.

Jingthing could have given the membership the option to say that they expect to move to Thailand within the next 10 years, but he's too busy trying to annoy us by saying that we don't count.

The poll isn't about plans to move here. It's about plans to leave here (if any). Why do polls need to cover EVERYTHING? (Jeez.)

Edited April 29, 2013 by Jingthing

[Dancealot]

Wish i could plan my whereabouts 10 years from now.

Jingthing could have given the membership the option to say that they expect to move to Thailand within the next 10 years, but he's too busy trying to annoy us by saying that we don't count.

The poll isn't about plans to move here. It's about plans to leave here (if any). Why do polls need to cover EVERYTHING? (Jeez.)

Apologies. .

As i said before i whish i was in the luxury position to be able to contemplate this life changing decision.

[HardenedSoul]

No plans to stay in Thailand for that long. Nothing to do with money (yet) - just think I'll get bored with it and move on.

Maybe elsewhere in Asia or Latin America

[qdinthailand]

So, in other words, you're another hostage of the health care/health insurance industries, and making life decisions on that basis.

At present, fee based Thai health care costs are still cheaper then paying insurance premiums, deductibles and co-pays when you plop that insurance card down at the pay window.

Don't forget that if you are healthy about all the money you save by not paying an insurance company annually. Put that same amount into a 'health care' investment account, invest wisely, and you might have more than enough to cover the big one when and if it happens. Then you won't have some bureaucrat - or worse, some clerk - deciding what is and isn't going to be covered, or even worse, that they aren't going to cover it at all because after all, it was a pre-existing condition and you are stuck for the full cost, despite your insurance policy.

I read somewhere where 50% of most people's health care costs in old age are spent during the last year of one's life. When that time comes, do like doctors do - submit to the realities, live that last year to the fullest, but don't try to buy your way out.

[Jingthing]

No plans to stay in Thailand for that long. Nothing to do with money (yet) - just think I'll get bored with it and move on.

Maybe elsewhere in Asia or Latin America

Yes I understand becoming bored here. I suppose I am probably bored here and I don't care! Could be older age.

[krisb]

What happens if decent health cover comes about in 10 years? Governments change their health plans regularly. With an ever growing falang population ,Thailand may see the need to offer such services.

[billd766]

I voted that I will still be living in Thailand in 10 years time.

The only thing that will stop me is if I am dead as I will be 69 next month.

No insurance, no health plan but I have had a hell of a good life and if it ended tomorrow my only regrets would be for my wife and son.

The only advantage that I can see with living in the west with all the good and bad medicine practices around is that you "may" live longer.

However if your family is not with you for some reason or another I know that I personally wouldn't want to live without them, longer or not.

I do have an exit plan but it doesn't involve leaving Thailand.

[kokesaat]

Been here for 17 years and no plans to leave. But we came with a plan B in the hip pocket and we'll always have one. Health, politics, or some other catastrophe that would have us better off in the US than here.......we can walk away from our home/land/possessions if that's necessary. Not that we ever plan to do so, but still.....nice to have a plan B just in case.

[Scully]

Wish i could plan my whereabouts 10 years from now.

I'm in the same boat, Thailand is changing rapidly and has got boring for me now, I am limited to a group of friends out in the sticks, usually alcoholics or know it alls, so I can honestly say I have only 3 very good friends here. I have sold up but kept my vehicle and will be moving to England for 6 months work, I will return and travel again.

Where will I go, I don't know.

[mrtoad]

I have no desire or plans to return to my country of origin, and I think I would say I am here for the long haul - but as I can't predict the future, and what may or may not happen, then there is always a chance. So I am a "Probable" as opposed to a "definite".

[AnotherOneAmerican]

If you get a job in Thailand, you can join the 400bht/month health care system.

Then you stop working but keep on paying in.

Once you have started, you can pay your own monthly fee forever.

[Jingthing]

If you get a job in Thailand, you can join the 400bht/month health care system.

Then you stop working but keep on paying in.

Once you have started, you can pay your own monthly fee forever.

That is useful info to those that are ... employable.

[theblether]

Wish i could plan my whereabouts 10 years from now.

Jingthing could have given the membership the option to say that they expect to move to Thailand within the next 10 years, but he's too busy trying to annoy us by saying that we don't count.

The poll isn't about plans to move here. It's about plans to leave here (if any). Why do polls need to cover EVERYTHING? (Jeez.)

Stop being so bad tempered, you'll take a bad turn and make the poll a self fulfilling prophesy.

[theblether]

If you get a job in Thailand, you can join the 400bht/month health care system.

Then you stop working but keep on paying in.

Once you have started, you can pay your own monthly fee forever.

That is useful info to those that are ... employable.

Self employment is beyond you then?? ........... you couldn't make a bit on the side via the net??

[Jingthing]

Self employment is beyond you then?? ........... you couldn't make a bit on the side via the net??

Let's move on away from me. OK?

[Lancelot]

I see myself splitting my time between Thailand and the US. Even better would be to have several overseas options, along with a few months in the US

[culicine]

There's too many variables to predict. As a teacher it will depend very much on keeping my current position (or one on a similar salary), and the effect of AEC on recruitment of teachers. If the government decides teachers from other ASEAN countries can teach english under much more relaxed visa/wp rules, then more than likely salaries of 15-20K a month will become the norm. If I can maintain my current salary, then I'd more than likely stay. There are other factors of course - political stability, education system changes, etc, that will play a minor role on my decision.

[theblether]

Self employment is beyond you then?? ........... you couldn't make a bit on the side via the net??

Let's move on away from me. OK?

I've heard it all now.