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Report: All foreign tourists will soon need insurance in order to enter Thailand

webfact

By webfact
in Thailand News

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webfact Grand Master Member

webfact

Posted
Posted

Report: All foreign tourists will soon need insurance in order to enter Thailand

 

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BANGKOK: -- Foreign tourists wishing to visit Thailand will be required to purchase travel insurance prior to their arrival.

 

The Bangkok Post, citing an unnamed but “informed source” claims the proposal has been put forward by the Tourism and Sports Ministry for consideration.

 

Under the proposals, there may even be insurance vending machines installed at airports and border checkpoints throughout Thailand so those without insurance can purchase soon after arriving on Thai soil.

 

Rumours regarding possible insurance for foreign visitors first surfaced last year, when representatives from Thaivisa were told privately by an official from a local immigration office that there had been discussions regarding a proposal that would require foreigners applying for an extension of stay to have valid medical insurance.

 

The requirement is seen as helping to reduce the burden on Thai hospitals who are being forced to treat an increasing number of uninsured foreigners.

 
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-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-06-05
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Orton Rd Platinum Member

Orton Rd

Posted
Posted

Idiotic, it's bad enough now with the Chinese at DM, imagine the 'queues' for insurance machines, folks with no baht, arguing, kids crying, machines breaking down, laughable.

 

'The requirement is seen as helping to reduce the burden on Thai hospitals who are being forced to treat an increasing number of insured foreigners.'

 

No problem then according to the article if foreigners are insured why is it costing Hospitals?

 
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CLW Gold Member

CLW

Posted
Posted

BS. Anyway, everyone with a brain should have one. No matter where he's going to travel. But as someone wrote already, if you read the fine print your holiday might be very boring...

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bheard Senior Member

bheard

Posted
Posted
Idiotic, it's bad enough now with the Chinese at DM, imagine the 'queues' for insurance machines, folks with no baht, arguing, kids crying, machines breaking down, laughable.
 

'The requirement is seen as helping to reduce the burden on Thai hospitals who are being forced to treat an increasing number of insured foreigners.'

 

No problem then according to the article if foreigners are insured why is it costing Hospitals?

 


Can't see that it's idiotic.
What is idiotic is coming to Thailand as a tourist without travel insurance.
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JAFO Silver Member

JAFO

Posted
Posted

Wait.....Are foreigners a burden to the medical system here?...don't make me laugh.

 

How many go and leave without paying?, whats the financial loss? whatever the number is, it has to be in the noise level. 

 

 

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smedly Star Member

smedly

Posted
Posted
21 minutes ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

Impossible to enforce. Will never pass.

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

100% correct, absolutely impossible, if this ever gets approved it will be nothing but a scam.

 

what they should be doing is charging all foreign people arriving in Thailand 500 or possibly 1000baht to cover any eventualities, most people have insurance anyway (oh and they already charge 500baht and charge some for visa)

 

I wonder as a percentage how many people arriving here need medical attention and factor in those already with medical insurance and also consider that some will be victims of the poor safety and lack of standards in Thailand 

 

when all is considered Thailand should be paying foreigners to come here lol

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eggers Senior Member

eggers

Posted
Posted

As usual, a very "sketchy"  report from Thai Visa;  no detail as to definition of "foreign tourists", who does it apply to? Just short stay tourists? Other foreigners staying? 

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kotsak Gold Member

kotsak

Posted
Posted

The only way this can be enforced is if all tourists need a pre-approved visa in order to enter the country, similar to the Shengen visa. The moment you allow visa exemption the whole thing goes belly up.

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fatdrunkandstupid Silver Member

fatdrunkandstupid

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, smedly said:

100% correct, absolutely impossible, if this ever gets approved it will be nothing but a scam.

 

what they should be doing is charging all foreign people arriving in Thailand 500 or possibly 1000baht to cover any eventualities, most people have insurance anyway (oh and they already charge 500baht and charge some for visa)

 

I wonder as a percentage how many people arriving here need medical attention and factor in those already with medical insurance and also consider that some will be victims of the poor safety and lack of standards in Thailand 

 

when all is considered Thailand should be paying foreigners to come here lol

Never say never.

 

Easy way to check whether or not this will move forward.  

 

Just look for any members of the military, or their relatives, assuming the role of director in any of the relevant insurers.

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ezzra Star Member

ezzra

Posted
Posted

Who are the people that comes up with such ludicrous ideas everyday just

to make tourist's life more difficult and sillier with every lame ideas?

what are they smoking I'd like to know, coz I want some too...

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Bob12345 Silver Member

Bob12345

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, CLW said:

On the other hand, in case of Thailand with the majority arriving without visa, hopeless. Just imagine the difficulties at immigration

Exactly, tourists will buy the policy at home and the policy will be in their native language.

So immigration just has to translate the policy at the spot and check the names on the policy with the name in the passport.

Knowing my own insurance policy consists of a booklet of rules and assuming they have a translator ready it will take about 10-15 minutes per arrival to check if they are adequately insured or not.

Maybe even contact the insurance company itself as my policy is just printed on normal A4 paper without stamps or watermarks. How can they know it is real or not?

 

Long story short: this will not happen.

Within a week we will see a U-turn from another office.

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fforest1 Silver Member

fforest1

Posted
Posted

The number of foreigners that 100% stiff hospitals for treatment in Thailand

is a tiny tiny drop in the bucket.....

It is a well know fact that most Thai hospitals do not allow themselves to

be stiffed on any procedure that cost $$$$....

Unless you were brought into the emergency room on a stretcher

after a car accident you would not be given the opportunity to stiff

them...

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8OA8 Senior Member

8OA8

Posted
Posted
Retirement extension fee...  1900 THB
 
Compulsory insurance...   36,000 THB
 
Getting to stay in a country where you are despised...  Priceless...

If the compulsory insurance covers everything my current policy covers il save almost Baht 100k [emoji1]

Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk

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ezflip Explorer Member

ezflip

Posted
Posted
43 minutes ago, webfact said:

The requirement is seen as helping to reduce the burden on Thai hospitals who are being forced to treat an increasing number of insured foreigners.

Isn't that what they call 'Medical Tourism' ??? If you invite people to come to your country for medical purposes, you can't really blame them afterwards for filling up your hospitals...

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yellowboat Gold Member

yellowboat

Posted
Posted

Spoke to a famous hospital in Bangkok about obtaining medical insurance through them.  Asked if immigration would be sympathetic to those undergoing treatment they said possibly NO.  They could not guarantee that people could come or stay in the country to seek medical treatment. 

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Bullie Senior Member

Bullie

Posted
Posted

I very much doubt that the immigration officer at the airport will be able to read what it says on my Dutch world wide medical insurance pass, let alone what it says on a chinese or arabic insurance pass. So how will they check whether people are insured or not? Many people who ARE insured will still be forced to buy extra insurance at the airport.

Also, from what I've read, we are talking about a loss of income of maybe 50 million baht Thailand-wide per year. This, ofcourse, is peanuts compared to the profit Thai hospitals make when charging western prices to foreigners for treatment.

It will yet be another nail in Thailands touristcoffin if they go ahead with this money-making scheme, Myanmar and Cambodia look more attractive each year!

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smedly Star Member

smedly

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, ezzra said:

Who are the people that comes up with such ludicrous ideas everyday just

to make tourist's life more difficult and sillier with every lame ideas?

what are they smoking I'd like to know, coz I want some too...

They are Thai, they are people who see an opportunity to scam and make money, they constantly wear a pair of glasses like these ($$$)-($$$)

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