health insurance for spouse

[ciliate]

I am a Canadian citizen and have been in Thailand for a bit over a year. I work as a lecturer at a university but my spouse does not have a job yet. The university provides full accident and health coverage for me but not for my spouse. So we are looking for health insurance options. I tried AIA but was told that they would not provide coverage to someone without work permit even if this person is a dependant. I have contacted Bupa and am still waiting for them to reply. Are there any other options? We are 44 and 47 years old. Just a side note here that I do not make an expat wage so I cannot afford to pay 200 or 300 USD per month. Thanks!

[Sheryl]

I think what AIA meant is that they do not offer individual health insurance, only to companies.

BUPA will certainly cover her, as would AXA.

[ciliate]

Thanks Sheryl,

I sure hope someone does provide coverage. I am still waiting for BUPA to reply. I contacted Thai Health last night and had a reply in my inbox this morning. So they get points for that! I am not sure if living in Chiang Rai makes any difference at all to the companies...Anyway, I will keep looking and will check out AXA as well.

[Sheryl]

It pays to go through an insurance broker. No extra cost and they can give you comparative data on several companies/policies.

As mentioned, having a WP is irrelevant. Your problem with AIA is that they do not insure individuals.

Besides Thai insurers there are also internationally based companies (mainly Europe) who offer expat packages.

Unless your spouse is 60 years old or over, unlikely that any policy would remotely come near 200 USD a month. (Unless it covers both inpt and outpt, which is unnecessary). More like 100 though in the case of foreign issued policies it also depends on whether you accept a deuctible.