How to Insure if 1/2 time US/ 1/2 time Thailand?

[chubby]

How to Insure if 1/2 time US/ 1/2 time Thailand?

I'm looking at maybe buying a BUPA Thai Platinum or a lesser plan , so that during my 3-6 months / year in country I have IPD insurance, maybe a catastrophic plan would work.

I'm only 50, wondering what others do, whom spend extended periods in Thailand? Perhaps just a high end Travel Insurance, but then what is maximum calender time in country, will Bangkok hospitals accept travel insurance, instead of upfront payment? if so, which travel insurance from experience?

I came close to just buying a MedJet policy for 1 year last time, which would allow me to choose when to be evac'd if admitted, vs. the travel insurance company..... thanks in advance

[inbangkok]

You will have to maintain the BUPA plan for Thailand continuously. If you cancel every 6 months, and then renew 6 months later you will always have new president existing conditions that will no longer be covered if you made any claims.

Otherwise, a cheaper plan that only covers major emergencies or accidents may be better.

Edited April 2, 2016 by inbangkok

[inbangkok]

Oh, and your question about BKK hospitals excepting travel insurance.... Depends on the hospital. The big international ones generally have large departments that take care of things like that for you (at least Thai insurance, not sure about international or travel insurance).

However, there are 2 big government hospitals I have been I'm BKK that don't even accept my Thai BUPA insurance. I have to pay up front and then file for reimbursement from BUPA.

But bottom line is that you are making the right choice getting insured. While medical cost is way cheaper than in America, it can still rack up very quick for anything serious.

Edited April 2, 2016 by inbangkok

[Sheryl]

Travel insurance policies can be for as much as 12 consecutive months. It will be less expensive to just get a travel policy each time you come ot Thailand than to maintain a Thai health insurance policy.

I used to use World Nomads, but as I never needed to make a claim I can't give first hand report. They have a good rep.

As you research travel insurance options, ask specifically about direct billing arrangements with Thai hospitals.

[The Man Who Sold the World]

For your in Thailand time - perhaps...

http://thailandtravelshield.tourismthailand.org

[jmd8800]

I have been looking into this myself. Presently, I'eve elected to stay in Thailand more then 330 days per year to avoid having to participate in the Affordable Care Act. (ObamaCare) Doing Bupa here and something in the US makes double coverage yearly.

I'm not sure why these things have to be so difficult. I contacted a global insurer about coverage here and an agent tried to contact me via email and phone. I responded to her email, but not the phone call. In my email response I asked about pre-existing conditions. No response yet.

[Sheryl]

If you are only in the US a month a year, just get a travel insurance policy for when in the US and then get either local Thai insurance or (better) a global expat policy that is worldwide except US (inc. US option costs way more than a month of travel insurance).

This is what I do. One point you have to be careful of, is that many travel insurance policies will not cover a US citizen visiting the US. After a lot of research I settled on IMG which will. http://www.imglobal.com/en/img-insurance/travel-medical-insurance/patriot-travel-medical-insurance.aspx (You just indicate US citizen and destination US, then will get pop-up menu asking if you live outside US, have been outside US for 6 consecutive months etc). It has pretty good reviews, I haven't had to file a claim so can't say more than that. Easy to get quotes and buy the coverage online.

[chubby]

hello there, do you know anyone that has actually used this ?TOT insurance program, last I heard, was to steer well clear of it, as it was such a joke. But, I don't recall the specifics, if you happen to?

For your in Thailand time - perhaps...

http://thailandtravelshield.tourismthailand.org

[chubby]

Perhaps BUPA's travel insurance, might be more likely than some other Travel Insurance, to have direct payment to BKK hospitals?

Guess I should have titled my question:

'anyone know of any travel insurance companies that direct pay BKK hospitals?"

will try to search TV a little......

[Sheryl]

If you mean BUPA Thailand, I'm pretty sure their travel insurance policy is only for residents of Thailand travelling outside of Thailand.

[Chivas]

Individual travel policy would be better for you. Just done a quick search (uk prices) for a 50 year old for 6 months standard cover at £118. Can exclude any pre existing conditions to avoid premium loading.

Out of interest I have a annual multi cover (maximum 90 day individual trip) at £47 at 56 years old

[wpcoe]

If you are only in the US a month a year, just get a travel insurance policy for when in the US and then get either local Thai insurance or (better) a global expat policy that is worldwide except US (inc. US option costs way more than a month of travel insurance).

This is what I do. One point you have to be careful of, is that many travel insurance policies will not cover a US citizen visiting the US. After a lot of research I settled on IMG which will. http://www.imglobal.com/en/img-insurance/travel-medical-insurance/patriot-travel-medical-insurance.aspx (You just indicate US citizen and destination US, then will get pop-up menu asking if you live outside US, have been outside US for 6 consecutive months etc). It has pretty good reviews, I haven't had to file a claim so can't say more than that. Easy to get quotes and buy the coverage online.

Thanks for that info, Sheryl. I just returned from a five-week visit to the US where I was actively involved in a home renovation project, and I was super paranoid about injuring myself (or just plain getting sick) and not having insurance coverage. *Next* time, I'll contact IMG...

[chubby]

here is what world nomads, just emailed me, if I'm reading it correctly, a hospital might be paid "in advance", after I pay upfront 1st, up to $500. ........ don't think this is satisfactory. I'll have to keep looking for travel insurance, that will pay a Bangkok hospital directly ; else: see if I can find a catastrophic type plan , and just pay the premium year round, despite being US based ?

if anyone happens to have a lead on either one of these ?

eg anyone ever used Tokio Marine?

http://www.hcc.com/

---

Dear Sir: Thank you for your interest in World Nomads! The policy does have a Hospital Advancement benefit of $500 which is intended to be used in a medical situation where you need to be admitted, but the facility will not provide any services unless they are paid upfront. Otherwise, for our plan it is customary for travelers to pay any reasonable medical expenses upfront and then file a claim. Please be aware that the medical portion of our policy is excess (secondary) to any primary coverage you may have. So if you do have other coverage you would need to file any claim with them first to provide an Explanation of Benefits for us to review for coverage what reimbursement they did not provide. We hope this clarified our coverage and apologize if it does not provide the coverage you seek. Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. Kind regards, Urith Trip Mate Customer Service Team on behalf of WorldNomads.com Please be advised that all benefits are subject to our confirmation of the purchase of the travel protection plan, written claim documentation and the plan provisions.

---

Edited April 13, 2016 by Tywais
Changed to standard font

[Sheryl]

Yes, that is pretty clear.

I think your best bet is a company that also has general expat medical with direct payment to Thai Hospitals since if they have it with their general insurance likely works with the travel insurance also.

Allianz would be one and I know they have travel. Cigna and AXA are others, have tyo check if they have travel insurance but probably do.

[chubby]

$80 / month assuming I'm allowed to bill BUPA Thai 1st , despite having US insurance , if anyone might know that?

....I could just eat the cost, perhaps with a lesser type plan assuming BUPA has those, and maintain it year-round

Platinum hospitalization only 1,000,000 2,000,000 5,000,000

Khun Chubby(age 50 years old) 38,794 42,817 50,268

10% special discount -3,879 -4,281 -5,026

Premium after discount 34,915 38,536 45,242

Monthly premium 2,910 3,212 3,771

[chubby]

thx kevin, but I need to buy into the ACA "obamacare" by law, so no expat plan is going to work for me as I'm not out of country for 330 days/year.

but, if you happen to know of a very reputable expat Thai ex-US, that has direct payments to BKK hospitals, with high deductibles, for like <1500 /month I'd be interested in a PM from you.

friend of mine in BKK says BKK Bank has some sort of plan, but I haven't researched on it yet......

but, the travel insurance plans, even without direct hospital payment, may end up being the best I can do ......

or just a MedJet account

1/2 US and 1/2 Thailand...

It's quite a tough question as the obvious issue here would be paying the premium in both countries, but in my opinion how I would get through this issue is by looking at Insurance Deals for Expats here in Thailand.
This is the best option because an international health insurance plan would kill two birds with one stone.

Let me know if you need advice about this... I know how/who can handle this situation...free consultation with no obligations as well.

[Sheryl]

Given that you will never be abroad more than a year at a time what makes most sense is to have a US policy and then take out travel insurance for each trip. Looking for one with direct billing arrangment with Thai hospitals. I'd suggest investiagting first:

Cigna (Global, not US)

Allianz

AxA

[inbangkok]

Do you have a health policy in the USA now?

For instance, my insurer in the USA will cover me for 90 days each time I leave the states. However, it is only for emergency situations and I have to pay upfront, file for reimbursement upon return. Because that is really what you need insurance here for (major things). You can pay out of pocket for a Dr. visit, medicine, etc. So you might want to check if the plan you have offers anything similar. Or maybe upgrade the plan you have to include emergency when abroad.

Edited April 7, 2016 by inbangkok

[chubby]

inbangkok: yes I do have a "silver" level policy in the USA now. Yes, I guess, I do know that they will cover some percentage after having paid upfront, etc, what concerns me, though, is those situations, where it's not so easy to pay "up front" in an emergency; eg my last trip brought a

friend to ER, and they wanted like 6000B to even see her in the ER before they would.

I'd prefer to just have coverage from the get-go.

though, having said that maybe, I should re-look at the MedJet evac program (which just does evac)

Sheryl: if world nomads is a higher better level than say Allianz they seem pretty clear they have not any type of plan that would pay upfront: (in fact I'm starting to wonder if I have a Thai based plan like BUPA, if they might just say they are a secondary to my "primary" USA plan and NOT after all make any

direct payments,.......hmm

[[Dear Sir:

Thank you for your interest in World Nomads! Unfortunately, we do not provide direct payments to medical facilities. The policy does have a Hospital Advancement benefit of $500 which is intended to be used in a medical situation where you need to be admitted, and the facility will not provide any services unless they are paid upfront. For our plan it is customary for travelers to pay any reasonable medical expenses upfront and then file a claim. We do not pre-pay claims, and we do not have other policies available that would accommodate your request. Please be aware that the medical portion of our policy is excess (secondary) to any primary coverage you may have. So if you do have other coverage you would need to file any claim with them first to provide an Explanation of Benefits for us to review for coverage what reimbursement they did not provide. }}

Edited April 13, 2016 by Tywais
Changed to standard font

[chubby]

plan 5 here is 8000B / year , hmm

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PERSONALBANKING/BUILDYOURWEALTH/BANCASSURANCE/LIFEINSURANCE/Pages/Health1st.aspx

[Sheryl]

plan 5 here is 8000B / year , hmm

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PERSONALBANKING/BUILDYOURWEALTH/BANCASSURANCE/LIFEINSURANCE/Pages/Health1st.aspx

This is woefully inadequate and you'd end up paying most of the costs of care out of pocket if anything major.

Surgical fee is capped at only 35,000

Doctor fee capped at 1,000 a day inpatient

total per event cap is only 549K

It also limits the hospitals you can get treated at.

Not worth having IMO.

You will not get a decent level of local cover at anything near such a low premium. Depending on your age, 50-150K a year is more realistic.

Most local insurers also require that you be resident in Thailand.

Continue to recommend you look into travel insurance from one of the big companies which have direct billing arrangements with Thai hospitals.

[chubby]

Called AIG, They are saying "if the hospital requires pre-payment" then they will do so. And they will be primary payor, if I buy the insurance within 15 days of buying my airline ticket ..... in their certificate of insurance "the doctor determines it is medically necessary",

I then told him, the majority of hospitals in Bangkok require prepayment, so it seems like it would be common, however, he had no 1st hand knowledge of how commonly they pay upfront to hospitals

http://www.travelguard.com/

If I can believe what he is saying this might be a good answer to my search

[chubby]

On 4/11/2016 at 8:39 PM, Sheryl said:

This is woefully inadequate and you'd end up paying most of the costs of care out of pocket if anything major.

Surgical fee is capped at only 35,000

Doctor fee capped at 1,000 a day inpatient

total per event cap is only 549K

It also limits the hospitals you can get treated at.

Not worth having IMO.

You will not get a decent level of local cover at anything near such a low premium. Depending on your age, 50-150K a year is more realistic.

Most local insurers also require that you be resident in Thailand.

Continue to recommend you look into travel insurance from one of the big companies which have direct billing arrangements with Thai hospitals.

 

Do I need to go ask them, how much they would break out for surgical  vs. item by item ; 

What is a REASONable level of deductible and max pay out ? $1,000,000 ?

 

thanks

 

[Sheryl]

With travel insurances that I have seen deductibles are usually small i.e. few hundred dollars at most.

 

For Thailand, you want a per event cap of about $200,000 (inclusive of possible medi-vac), more if the cap is per trip.

 

Be sure to read any fine print re what is covered as some are just accident coverage, you want also coverage for non-accident health emergencies.

 

Some travel insurance policies will cover "acute exacerbations" of pre-existing conditions which is very advisable if you have any chronic conditions.

 

Make sure they have a direct billing arrangement, some  travel insuiances only reimburse after the fact.

 

 

[1FinickyOne]

Chubby - might not be applicable but in the days when I was going back & forth to USA, I found out that if I left my home unattended, un-lived in - after a certain number of days, maybe 60 days, my home owners insurance would be considered invalid as the house would be considered abandoned...

 

not sure if this is applicable to you, but figure it was worth a mention.

[chubby]

On 8/16/2016 at 6:09 PM, kenk24 said:

 

 

Turns out this is 

PER TRIP, not per incident . 

and quote 

The $500,000 Medical Evacuation is part of the policy and it is outside of the Medical Limit.

 

they have some license to use blue cross/shield's brand, but aren't BC/SH fwiw.