Health Insurance

[FireMedic]

Hi everyone and thanks for reading this. I am here working full time for a company in Singapore. The Singaporean office can not insure me because I actually live here in Thailand, however my office will reimburse me for my local insurance coverage. I'm 37, live in BKK, but my travel area is all over Asia Pacific. I need Health/medical insurance to cover me here in Thailand with a travel rider or something of the sort. Any suggestions or recommendations? I have tried some from the US, however many don't cover areas I frequent like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and others. Thanks again!

[richard_smith237]

I've been using BUPA International for cover for the past 10 years or so.

They offer global cover with the exception of the USA.

I did a lot of research when looking at policies one major observation I made was the 'capping' of policies / a pay out ceiling. i.e. Some companies policies were capped at between 500k and 1 Million Baht.. meaning if something catastrophic were to occur you'd had to pay yourself for the really expensive stuff.

The Policies for my Wife, Son and have Inpatient cover only Only. I can readily afford any outpatient treatment. The reason I have insurance is to cover the 'big stuff' if we were ever to find ourselves in an unfortunate situation.

My BUPA International Policy Costs Approx US$2800 (I'm 40 years old) - My Work Pays.

For my Family (Wife and Son) the BUPA International Policy is GBP £1600 (with a £500 excess - Wife is 37, Son is 1.5 yrs) - I pay.

[xylophone]

I've been using BUPA International for cover for the past 10 years or so.

They offer global cover with the exception of the USA.

I did a lot of research when looking at policies one major observation I made was the 'capping' of policies / a pay out ceiling. i.e. Some companies policies were capped at between 500k and 1 Million Baht.. meaning if something catastrophic were to occur you'd had to pay yourself for the really expensive stuff.

The Policies for my Wife, Son and have Inpatient cover only Only. I can readily afford any outpatient treatment. The reason I have insurance is to cover the 'big stuff' if we were ever to find ourselves in an unfortunate situation.

My BUPA International Policy Costs Approx US$2800 (I'm 40 years old) - My Work Pays.

For my Family (Wife and Son) the BUPA International Policy is GBP £1600 (with a £500 excess - Wife is 37, Son is 1.5 yrs) - I pay.

I am older than Richard Smith above, and I needed to get some health insurance cover before I reached the age of 60, so that I could remain insured for many years to come, whereas some companies will only insure you to the age of 65 if you missed that deadline (or something like that!).

I did quite a bit of research and wanted something which was readily acceptable to hospitals in Thailand. One particular overseas company, based in Europe, had some very good rates and I checked this company out with a friend of mine who is the Administrator at a local private hospital, and neither he nor the staff had heard of them, so it would mean telephoning the company to determine whether they would accept the costs etc etc. and that could be time-consuming and quite possibly their phones would not be manned at weekends, posing a problem.

Another company based in the USA had also good rates, however a search on the Internet showed that they had refused many claims and upset many customers by refusing to pay for what would seem to be straightforward claims.

In the end I settled for BUPA, And have had absolutely no problems with them, indeed if I have ever needed to go into hospital I just show them the BUPA card and everything is taken out of my hands and done for me, so I can thoroughly recommend them.

[MFW09]

Hi Firemedic,

Give my broker Steve a call.He arranged my medical insurance and am very happy. www.tigonconsultancy.com .

[bazmlb]

I suggest you try either of the forum sponsors, as well as looking at Pacific Cross' options which either broker should be able to supply to you, it costs no more to use a broker, but you have their added support in finding the right policy and if there are any issues with claims they can assist as well.

http://www.pacificcrosshealth.com/

http://www.misterprakan.com

http://www.aainsure.net

[AAInsuranceBrokers]

There are indeed several different policies that will meet your needs – an example being an Allianz product which covers you fully up to a limit of 15m Baht.

The cost for you would be USD888 per year but the important point being is that it would insure you in many S.E.A. countries plus anywhere Worldwide for emergencies.

LINK

[MisterprakanBroker]

We offer Worldwide affordable Health Insurance. Our website is www.misterprakan.com

We can help you with all your insurance needs.

[richard_smith237]

There are indeed several different policies that will meet your needs – an example being an Allianz product which covers you fully up to a limit of 15m Baht.

The cost for you would be USD888 per year but the important point being is that it would insure you in many S.E.A. countries plus anywhere Worldwide for emergencies.

LINK

Does Allianz have direct settlement with the hospitals (most of them at least) in a similar manner to BUPA?

I'm a bit annoyed at BUPA - I go through them with work, so I have little choice.

However, they have increased the premium by 12% for my Wife and Son - The renewal cost recently quoted is £1781 (with a £500 deductible).

I'm finding that BUPA have increased their premium excessively (12% p/a) over the past couple of years: Industry standard has been an increase of 5-6%... whereas inflation is Zero at the moment.

A good alternative for a 37 year old Wife and an 18month son would be useful... The Allianz online quote and others were also expensive.

[AAInsuranceBrokers]

Allianz will deal direct with any hospital within the S.E.A. countries listed, however saying that there must be sufficient time for the hospital to contact the claims department and arrange the payment (this is where the system can fail).

Annual increases: most companies try and keep them below double digits – anything over that can either mean they have tried to buy customers in previous years with low premiums or their underwriting has been wrong.

Increases are due to the hospitals increasing their prices but we see the Government starting to try and rein in some of these increases at last.

[xylophone]

There are indeed several different policies that will meet your needs – an example being an Allianz product which covers you fully up to a limit of 15m Baht.

The cost for you would be USD888 per year but the important point being is that it would insure you in many S.E.A. countries plus anywhere Worldwide for emergencies.

LINK

Does Allianz have direct settlement with the hospitals (most of them at least) in a similar manner to BUPA?

I'm a bit annoyed at BUPA - I go through them with work, so I have little choice.

However, they have increased the premium by 12% for my Wife and Son - The renewal cost recently quoted is £1781 (with a £500 deductible).

I'm finding that BUPA have increased their premium excessively (12% p/a) over the past couple of years: Industry standard has been an increase of 5-6%... whereas inflation is Zero at the moment.

A good alternative for a 37 year old Wife and an 18month son would be useful... The Allianz online quote and others were also expensive.

Interesting to read of your disappointment with BUPA and although I have been with them for just over seven years and was happy with them, I have found the recent increase from last year's premium to be around 35%!!! And I'm not happy with that.

I was 66 years of age last year when I paid a premium of about 76,000 baht, and now they want over 105,000 baht. In all of the years I have been with them I think I have claimed a total of around 20,000 baht, So they done very well out of me.

It's come to the point where I am debating whether it is worth paying this sort of money or whether I should take my chances with paying any emergency type health issue out of my own pocket, then perhaps going back to NZ if further treatment is needed.

One thing I did consider was scaling down my policy cover because for the moment it is about 2 million baht, so I got onto the BUPA website and noticed they have one called "Crystal Plan" and although the maximum covered there is about 600,000 baht, I could probably live with that and top anything up if necessary.

The only thing concerning me is the following which pertains to this particular health insurance policy: –

Important note:

• Crystal Plan is eligible for Thai-resident who stay in Thailand legally at least 1 year.

• This plan covers the eligible medical treatment in Thailand only, not from overseas.

• The medical expenses incurred from the Bumrungrad Hospital, the BNH, the Bangkok General Hospital including their networks are ineligible and are excluded for any benefit.

As I live in Phuket, all I want to know is if I am covered should I go into Bangkok Phuket hospital or Phuket International Hospital and I have searched (using Google) to see if either of these is part of a network of either Bangkok General Hospital or the BNH hospital as noted above, but can't really find a clear outcome!

I will endeavour to get on the phone to them tomorrow, however if anyone can throw any light on this it would be appreciated, and perhaps this would also be good news for other folks in a similar situation to me?

[stevenl]

Bangkok phuket is not covered under that plan. Phuket international was, but not sure if that is still the case after the takeover by the Bangkok hospital network.

[AAInsuranceBrokers]

Sorry xylophone but you are not eligible for the Crystal plan - however we do have similar 'Basic' plans suitable for you.

[MisterprakanBroker]

Xylophone,

I would be happy to help you with a cheaper solution than BUPA if incase you need help. You can contact us through my email : [email protected]

[xylophone]

Sorry xylophone but you are not eligible for the Crystal plan - however we do have similar 'Basic' plans suitable for you.

Not sure why I am not eligible for the Crystal plan as I am ready with BUPA, however will bow to your superior knowledge.

Perhaps contact me via a PM Would be a start, this especially as when I was looking for some vehicle insurance about a month ago and enquired through AAInsuranceBrokers, no one got back to me!!!

All for giving it another go because these things do happen!

[xylophone]

Xylophone,

I would be happy to help you with a cheaper solution than BUPA if incase you need help. You can contact us through my email : [email protected]

Have sent you an email.

[AAInsuranceBrokers]

Sorry xylophone but you are not eligible for the Crystal plan - however we do have similar 'Basic' plans suitable for you.

Not sure why I am not eligible for the Crystal plan as I am ready with BUPA, however will bow to your superior knowledge.

Perhaps contact me via a PM Would be a start, this especially as when I was looking for some vehicle insurance about a month ago and enquired through AAInsuranceBrokers, no one got back to me!!!

All for giving it another go because these things do happen!

Have just checked - our reply to you with 6 different quotes for your Swift was sent 19th May - can we suggest you check your Junk Folder ?

[xylophone]

Sorry xylophone but you are not eligible for the Crystal plan - however we do have similar 'Basic' plans suitable for you.

Not sure why I am not eligible for the Crystal plan as I am ready with BUPA, however will bow to your superior knowledge.

Perhaps contact me via a PM Would be a start, this especially as when I was looking for some vehicle insurance about a month ago and enquired through AAInsuranceBrokers, no one got back to me!!!

All for giving it another go because these things do happen!

Have just checked - our reply to you with 6 different quotes for your Swift was sent 19th May - can we suggest you check your Junk Folder ?

Hmmm..........don't remember seeing them and junk folder long empty.

Did have a couple of computer "problems" but nothing serious so don't know what happened there?

If it was an error on my part then I apologise unreservedly AND would like to thank you for your swift responses to my recent query..........onwards and upwards.

[mmh8]

I did a fair bit of researcdh on this myself, I looked at a lot of em and went with BUPA, you can get a nice mix of inpatient outpatient needs sorted. There is a lot out there, but happen to thinkj the service was goodf

[xylophone]

I did a fair bit of researcdh on this myself, I looked at a lot of em and went with BUPA, you can get a nice mix of inpatient outpatient needs sorted. There is a lot out there, but happen to thinkj the service was goodf

I am still researching my options given the replies from a couple of kind folks on TV.

Pretty sure that I don't want to continue with the current BUPA plan esp with the huge increase from last years premium so am looking at other options.

I did come across an old post on TV which stated that another Thai health insurance company had its credit rating downgraded to BBB- and I was considering this option........so still more work to do.

[GroveHillWanderer]

Sorry xylophone but you are not eligible for the Crystal plan - however we do have similar 'Basic' plans suitable for you.

AAI - I have sent you a PM.

[gk10002000]

There are indeed several different policies that will meet your needs – an example being an Allianz product which covers you fully up to a limit of 15m Baht.

The cost for you would be USD888 per year but the important point being is that it would insure you in many S.E.A. countries plus anywhere Worldwide for emergencies.

LINK

Does Allianz have direct settlement with the hospitals (most of them at least) in a similar manner to BUPA?

I'm a bit annoyed at BUPA - I go through them with work, so I have little choice.

However, they have increased the premium by 12% for my Wife and Son - The renewal cost recently quoted is £1781 (with a £500 deductible).

I'm finding that BUPA have increased their premium excessively (12% p/a) over the past couple of years: Industry standard has been an increase of 5-6%... whereas inflation is Zero at the moment.

A good alternative for a 37 year old Wife and an 18month son would be useful... The Allianz online quote and others were also expensive.

FYI. I am in the USA. My Florida blue cross blue shield plan is "grandfathered" and I did not have to yet deal with the Obamacare and health insurance exchange sites. However, my insurance rates, which were rising about 12% every year since 2006, have risen 29% the last two years!