Australian tourist stuck in Thai hospital after head-on collision, owing $56,000 in medical bills

[lvr181]

3 minutes ago, manarak said:

 

so what happens when you try to turn that motorcycle riding cover into a "YES" ?

You pay extra or it is refused? At the end of the day it is buyer's choice.

 

This company is specific about what the motorcycle insurance cover terms are (under 200cc and rider wearing helmet).

[Geoff Snell]

Wow I reckon even if she was (on paper) fully covered by insurance they would surely find some loophole to avoid the payout. I say this because in 1988 my brother died and he had a full cover life insurance policy. They found a way to not pay out one cent. Just bad luck in a big world

[impulse]

1 hour ago, lvr181 said:

Please refer to the Product Disclosure Statement for full details. Some of the exclusions include:

 

Keep in mind the info you posted is only a summary.  There are pages and pages of additional details you'll only find in the Product Disclosure Statement.

[Deepinthailand]

18 hours ago, JohnMiller70 said:

Indeed. Corrected

No her mistakes were not having a valid motorbike licence in the first place. Not reading her insurance correctly and driving without a helmet. 

With her son on the back.

None of which is good housekeeping

[norfolkandchance]

13 hours ago, farcanell said:

Kidnap for ransom scenario.... send in the SAS to rescue her.

i doubt Scandinavain Airlines Services would help

[4MyEgo]

15 hours ago, cyberfarang said:

Was you here during the Chiang Mai 2005 floods? We were flooded out in Hang Dong, remember walking down the road trying to reach my house being up to my chest in water. We lost most of our furniture and clothes, took months to get the damp out of our house afterwards. We were not insured at the time. Still having nightmares about that.

 

As you say, these insurance companies will come up with any excuses to avoid paying out. I guess that according to the insurers they consider a flood as being an act of God, that gives them a million get out of paying clauses.

 

When companies or people tell me don`t worry, no problem, then I start to worry.

 

I fail to see your point (with respect), you say you were not insured, then you go on to have a go at insurance companies, I have never, ever, had a problem with an insurance company when, ever, I have made a claim.

 

I could assume insurers are in the business of making money as most businesses are, and when a claim is made, they will look for an out, hopefully a legal out, ah sorry bud, our policy doesn't cover you because you didn't have the appropriate licence, helmet, footwear, etc, etc, would you, if the insurer just pay out $56,000 if you knew she didn't have the motorcycle licence or helmet, lets not forget, not only do insurers have a "duty of care" so does the purchaser, simple really.

 

I hope you have house insurance now, I don't, keep telling the Mrs but in one and out the other, will have to crack that whip !

[elgordo38]

3 hours ago, manarak said:

in many cases, it is

1- not possible to get a clear summary of coverage and exclusions

2- not possible to compare insurances and also

3- not possible to find insurance policies that offer the required cover.

 

the whole insurance-cover-abroad thing is very frustrating, even for intelligent and informed persons.

You make a good point on insurance companies. They are in drastic need of a cleanup. Their policy fine print goes way beyond the comprehension of most of us. They are fully protected but the customer is not. 

[StefanBBK]

Make insurance a mandatory inclusion in bike hire!

[elgordo38]

I have been with the same health insurance company for years. Lately I have noticed they question every minute detail. It seems that the longer they can keep my claim check in their bank account the better for them that is. 

[Phuketboy]

18 hours ago, Paul Hancock said:

The authorities could try to force motorcycle rental agencies to display a sign in different languages warning renters to check their insurance before renting. If nothing else, the BiB would get a little extra tea money from enforcing the law.....

 

They should also be asking for a motorbike licence, but they don't.  People think they can just use their car license, but sorry a car and motorbike are totally different. 

[houlicha]

My wife and I rented a moped in Bermuda when we were about 30. Same deal, no experience with any 2 wheeled motorized vehicle, no helmets, wrong side of the road, no insurance. Fortunately drivers in Bermuda are very patient and sane, no more to the story.

[Dan5]

10 hours ago, Zikomat said:

It works the same way as dealing with any kind of business without agreeing on the price of the service before getting that service. For example, you stop a taxi on Phuket (which never have a meter) and say you want to go to Patong. After arriving to Patong taxi driver is asking 1500 baht although you know the usual price is only 300 baht. What can you do? Not much. When it comes to the cases like in this thread (and the hospitals in common) - the woman did not have a chance to discuss the price of the hospital's service. Probably she was unconscious most of the time. And if so - why not 56.000 USD? She should be thankful they did not ask for 560.000 USD. Just a classic medical rip-off case!

Don't know about Thailand, but in the USA it is nearly impossible to find out how much services cost. In some cases they even sign non-disclosure agreements with their suppliers so that they can't legally tell you. You find out how much your stay costed when you get your bill.

[Zikomat]

4 hours ago, MadMuhummad said:

Everything is hazardous everywhere. Bad things happen, and quite regularly. 

I don't know about everything...But medical prices all over the world are often absurd and unjustifiable. My most recent example. I go to BKK-Pattaya hospital to ask a doctor for a certain medicine. I pay 1100 baht just to see a doctor and get a receipt from him. Then I buy a medicine which turns out to be about 6 USD per capsule (totally 30 capsules bought). Now, after taking only 1 capsule I understood that it's dosage is too high for me and I need a smaller amount of the medicine per capsule taken. I go back to the hospital and explain my problem at the reception. And I am sent to the doctor again (cost of this visit is again 1100 baht!). And guess what - the doctor says that the medicines cannot be changed at their hospital and I can only buy a new one -although the tablets are still in the original packaging and were bought from the same hospital just 3 days ago. Is it rip-off or not? Do they really care to help people or they only need as much cash from you as possible? And this is only one small example.My every interaction with medical system makes me feel disgusted about most of the people working there. So I try to avoid it whenever I can.

Edited January 29, 2017 by Zikomat

[Zikomat]

5 minutes ago, Zikomat said:

deleted

 

Edited January 29, 2017 by Zikomat

[Dan5]

You have to be careful with insurance policies. I remember this scam the American medical insurance companies ran before ObamaCare.  The policy application would require you to report every medical condition you ever had in your life time. Something that is nearly impossible to do completely accurately for most people in say their 60s. Then when the person got ill with something expensive to treat, for example cancer, the company would pour through all their medical records looking for something they missed. An example in one of the numerous articles about this was a person would get cancer. The company would discover that they failed to report an allergy they had maybe 30 years ago, completely unrelated tothe cancer. But the company would use this to cancel their policy and not pay for cancer treatments.

[Dan5]

There was a very similar post here a couple months ago. The woman had a really large bill from the hospital and the hospital had her passport and told her they wouldn't give it back to her unless she paid the bill. In the end the hospital canceled the whole bill. She didn't have to pay anything. I assume it was because of all the bad publicity.

[hawker9000]

I'm all about individual responsibility for having the needed insurance - and she was negligent - as well as the usually unappreciated dangers of motorbike rentals by foreigners visiting in Thailand, but the part about the hospital refusing to release her so she can receive treatment she needs back in Australia (until the bill is paid) amounts to physical assault and should draw a formal protest from the Australian government as well as criminal charges against the hospital (or whoever's responsible for this hostage-taking) in Thailand.  This happened to an American in Mexico years ago who was involved in a traffic accident and didn't have insurance.  The family arranged for a medevac flight, but the Mexican government refused to clear the medevac because he didn't have the insurance he was supposed to have, and the guy ended up dying.  I don't think it was about the medical bills per se:  as I recall it had to do with liability to the other party involved in the accident (which insurance would've taken care of if he'd had it).  The medical authorities waiting for him in California said later that his death was due to the delay.

 

Yes, have your insurance bases covered by all means.  But the days are long past when a visitor to Thailand could just grab a bike and buzz around without a care.  Sad to say, but It really shouldn't be as easy as it is for a tourist to rent one.  Even the use of motorbike taxis should probably be treated as something of a risk.

[surinteacher2016]

19 hours ago, Paul Hancock said:

The authorities could try to force motorcycle rental agencies to display a sign in different languages warning renters to check their insurance before renting. If nothing else, the BiB would get a little extra tea money from enforcing the law.....

 

Come on your thinking like a farang not a thai. 

 

Do the rental companies really care? They just want income by renting out their bikes as much  as possible. 

[lvr181]

3 hours ago, impulse said:

 

Keep in mind the info you posted is only a summary.  There are pages and pages of additional details you'll only find in the Product Disclosure Statement.

Yup - the "summary" I posted is to let people know that the information is there, they just need to read it.

[LPCustom69]

1 hour ago, Dan5 said:

You have to be careful with insurance policies. I remember this scam the American medical insurance companies ran before ObamaCare.  The policy application would require you to report every medical condition you ever had in your life time. Something that is nearly impossible to do completely accurately for most people in say their 60s. Then when the person got ill with something expensive to treat, for example cancer, the company would pour through all their medical records looking for something they missed. An example in one of the numerous articles about this was a person would get cancer. The company would discover that they failed to report an allergy they had maybe 30 years ago, completely unrelated tothe cancer. But the company would use this to cancel their policy and not pay for cancer treatments.

You seem to have an issue with hospitals in America, and insurance in general. Having lived there most of my life, I call BS. I never had a problem being covered by insurance stateside, and neither did my family or any of my friends.

 

Tell us what happened to you in the past that turned you into such a crusader, and maybe we can sympathize.

[mikeymike100]

Its a fact that insurance companies are only too pleased to take your money, but loathe to pay out. They are the experts and will find the smallest anomaly to not pay out. Insurance companies don't care about the individual only profit, they are after all a business.

To those who say well she should have read the small print, have you seen some of those policies, it would tale a lawyer to figure out what some of them say.

In the article it says the hospital thought she had 1.5 million coverage, so they priced everything accordingly (top dollar price). If they had know she in fact did not, they would have charged a discounted price. So basically the hospital is ripping off insurance companies?? Well what a surprise !!

[Tchooptip]

21 hours ago, BarnicaleBob said:

If you would have read the whole story, you would know that she had insurance but it did not cover her for driving a moped.  So her only mistake was to rent a moped without reading the fine print on her travel insurance policy

 

"her only mistake was to rent a moped without reading the fine print on her travel insurance policy"

her only mistake? 

 Witnesses have reported Ms Weldon veered onto the wrong side of the road.

 

[farcanell]

7 hours ago, SEEDGER said:

Everything is hazardous in Thailand! Was it not just the other day and Italian was walking down beach road in Jomtien and a tree branch attacked him and killed him!

To be safe in Thailand you need an Armour suit, something similar to the Iron Man movie franchise!

I want one I want one I want one!!

[Dan5]

2 hours ago, LPCustom69 said:

You seem to have an issue with hospitals in America, and insurance in general. Having lived there most of my life, I call BS. I never had a problem being covered by insurance stateside, and neither did my family or any of my friends.

 

Tell us what happened to you in the past that turned you into such a crusader, and maybe we can sympathize.

We? Do you speak for the whole group? And where did you live in America? La La land? Personally I've never had a problem since the companies I've worked for have always taken care of my insurance, but I know people who have. And if you didn't live in La La land and read the newspapers, you could have read literally 100s of articles over the years about what I've talking about., And yes I remember you. Always supportive of the insurance companies.

[zaphod reborn]

22 hours ago, 12DrinkMore said:

Yep, she looks like making a profit.

 

So far crowd funding  has reached $50,403 of $100k goal

They should use any excess money to sue the insurance company that declined coverage.  The exclusion the insurer relied upon, driving without a license, is against public policy and almost always ruled illegal.

Edited January 29, 2017 by zaphod reborn

[farcanell]

24 minutes ago, zaphod reborn said:

They should use any excess money to sue the insurance company that declined coverage.  The exclusion the insurer relied upon, driving without a license, is against public policy and almost always ruled illegal.

Interesting.... can you elaborate on this? it may be useful information.

 

i shall goggle... but directions would be a nice short cut. Thanks

[crazyk]

as much as i think insurance companys are a con,they are right in this case,no license cancels it,she will more than likely get charged by the police

[lvr181]

On 1/29/2017 at 7:11 PM, crazyk said:

as much as i think insurance companys are a con,they are right in this case,no license cancels it,she will more than likely get charged by the police

I guess you have nothing insured?

 

Despite many dissatisfied claimants there are very very many more who were glad to be insured.

[stevenl]

They should use any excess money to sue the insurance company that declined coverage.  The exclusion the insurer relied upon, driving without a license, is against public policy and almost always ruled illegal.

Source please.

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[stevenl]

Its a fact that insurance companies are only too pleased to take your money, but loathe to pay out. They are the experts and will find the smallest anomaly to not pay out. Insurance companies don't care about the individual only profit, they are after all a business.
To those who say well she should have read the small print, have you seen some of those policies, it would tale a lawyer to figure out what some of them say.
In the article it says the hospital thought she had 1.5 million coverage, so they priced everything accordingly (top dollar price). If they had know she in fact did not, they would have charged a discounted price. So basically the hospital is ripping off insurance companies?? Well what a surprise !!

No, they do not try to not pay.
There is these days no small print in most policies, and policies are quite easy to read and understand these days.

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