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

[wakeupplease]

Chatting to customers and friends to day I dropped in the question "Do you get travel insurance b4 you travel" Everyone said yes its a must, so either the bottom end of the market goes on holiday there or its being lined up for the expats.

 

After booking flights I always top up on insurance just encase and going local always make sure it covered, so found it strange to read this as such a big story.

 

local Hospitals are good and staff great, but would always travel home if I had a problem, even the wife who had an op within the last month said years ahead of back home and she should know as what does she do for a living?. Thats a shed load of money they are talking about and frankly I do not believe a word of "tourists costs" but know from the wife and her ex nursing colleagues many expats use the hospitals.

[bandito]

17 hours ago, CLW said:

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...

 

Nobody is or will insure me as I am over 80 years of age.

Not that I worry.

[Rockee]

Travel insurance in many cases only applies if you have a return ticket. Many expats living in Thailand wouldn't qualify.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[mommysboy]

4 hours ago, ThaidaGwaii said:

If car rental can run a pre-tab on someone's credit card, why the hospitals can't do the same?

 

Hospitals in Thailand are required to treat the patient, whether he/she can pay or not.

 

Turning the patient away to die is simply not an option. Should it be?

[mommysboy]

3 hours ago, wakeupplease said:

Chatting to customers and friends to day I dropped in the question "Do you get travel insurance b4 you travel" Everyone said yes its a must, so either the bottom end of the market goes on holiday there or its being lined up for the expats.

 

After booking flights I always top up on insurance just encase and going local always make sure it covered, so found it strange to read this as such a big story.

 

local Hospitals are good and staff great, but would always travel home if I had a problem, even the wife who had an op within the last month said years ahead of back home and she should know as what does she do for a living?. Thats a shed load of money they are talking about and frankly I do not believe a word of "tourists costs" but know from the wife and her ex nursing colleagues many expats use the hospitals.

What people say and what they do might be different things.

 

It does sound rather high. Perhaps the biggest offenders are not western farangs, but visitors from Africa or neighbouring parts of Asia.  Just wondering, not saying.

 

(in case- not encase)

[theguyfromanotherforum]

11 hours ago, the guest said:

Rubbish, of course it can be enforced in the same fashion Thais requiring Shenghen visas to enter EU. If the authorities has any sense, all they need to do it copy our system where you have to bring along visa application form along with your valid insurance details. The problem is easy to solve, and one which is very practical for all foreigners entering the kingdom to have insurance, and not be a burden to the country in the event they require medical treatment.

 

Thanks for the laugh, oh the brilliant one

[fforest1]

Whats the problem just drop some money like 100 baht into a vending machine at the airport and you are covered for any health emergencies for the rest of your holiday in Thailand... 

Sounds easy enough...

  

[1SteveC]

3 hours ago, IMA_FARANG said:

I will support a corresponding  rule that all  Thai  tourists entering the U.S. be required to show a one week minimum insurance requirement before entering the U.S.

Since U.S. health costs run a minimum of 400 to 500 dollars for a one night stay in an average U.S. hospital in case of an accident that means a Thai tourist arriving in the U.S. must show at lest 400 U.S. dollars per day of insurance coverage from a U.S. insurance provider on entrance to the U.S.

At roughly 35 Baht to one dollar, that means a Thai entering the U.S. must show evidence of 

140,000 Baht per family member to enter the U.S. for a one week entry to the U.S.

What is "good foe the Goose is good for the Gander", as the saying goes.

 

 

 

You might want to revisit your figures, the page below starts at about 1600USD per day and just keeps going up, (the figures are from 2013, so guessing they would be even higher now).

 

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/average-cost-per-inpatient-day-across-50-states.html

[habanero]

I think the key word here is tourists.  Not sure what the requirement for those living here will be. 

[wabothai]

Stop wining Kobkarn, small price to pay for the billions you rake in every day.

[Tech65]

19 hours ago, bheard said:

 

 

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

 

….. then renting motorbikes or quads for the first time of their life, riding without helmet in trafficated Thai roads, preferably a bit drunk why not, scuba diving without experience, jumping here and there like monkeys, fighting with katoey, eating all sort of cheap garbage food possible. That's smart.

 

I dont see why oblige tourists to travel with insurance is dumb.

All EU members require for all foreigners entering the Union (- not arriving with inflatable boats though, in this case immigrants are granted full assistance, pocket money and free hotel) are required to present Schengen type travel insurance to apply for visa and must bring it along with them. China is the same and many other countries.

 

[terminatorchiangmai]

16 hours ago, Suradit69 said:

 

Apparently you lost the "un" in "uninsured" as well.

Apparently this great reporter edited his mistake.

[pizzachang]

I suspect the actual number of non-paying foreigners seeking hospital treatment is very small. Emergency services, including emergency room & ambulance may be the cause of such an idea being "discussed".  Most hospitals want a description of how you are going to pay, before you ever get to see the doctor....hasn't this been everyone's experience?

[Tofer]

Fine, so in this fair society can we assume the Thai government will be paying compensation for the foreign victims of the (quote Smedly) 'poor safety and lack of standards' in Thailand. After all their pockets are bulging from their involvement in "reducing" budgets for their own ends, leaving e.g. roads so badly potholed people die on a daily basis around the country.

[Deserted]

Will the machines accept satang?

[wabothai]

We may want to know the figures stating the number of treated and uninsured foreigners and where they are from. Thank you kobkarn, or are you seeing $$$$$$ again?

[maoro2013]

20 hours ago, webfact said:

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

Well apparently the proposal has been put forward so far. The headline would need to be considered inaccurate.

[Jonmarleesco]

Good move. Take time to extract one size 'twelve' before inserting the other one.

[david555]

1 hour ago, habanero said:

I think the key word here is tourists.  Not sure what the requirement for those living here will be. 

i understand your point ...., but even when on 1 year extension we are not residents ...as only our non o visa is extended , permanent residents are a different status !

[tonray]

It's no big deal. Just require proof or insurance at the border and if none provided make them sit at provided computer terminal and start a GoFundMe page with the Thai government as the recipient. Once the account pledges reach 2,000,000 baht, they get 30 days.

[Oleg57]

For 8 years in Thailand I never used state hospitals. If there was any problem, a private clinic and paid medical care is available and not expensive. I just paid but very rare I need it. Once in two years to pay for a dentist. Like this. That was all my needs for medical care. Why should I have a medical insurance in Thailand? If new regulations are going to be enforced, it should not be for those expats who are residing already in Thailand. Only for newcomers and tourists.

As for the fake medical insurance, I recall times when it was possible to buy a fake insurance 10USD per month to travel Germany, as  an example. Issue of a fake insurances is a gold mine for fraudsters. Anyway, if it will be enforced, Thailand is going to be no-go zone for many expats and tourists. My sister with her family three years ago visited me in Thailand and because of complications with entrance permit already in Thailand she told me - never more i will come to Thailand. Spain is far cheaper and better in all means.

 

[captspectre]

ARE you ready for this? hold your breath! here it comes--- I AGREE with this! to many freeloaders coming to thailand and  acting like fools and bleeding the hospital system

.

[captspectre]

32 minutes ago, david555 said:

i understand your point ...., but even when on 1 year extension we are not residents ...as only our non o visa is extended , permanent residents are a different status !

FLASH! a non "o" visa is NOT a tourist visa!

[fforest1]

News Flash....

Farangs will be needing even more free treatment because

the policies you will be buying from vending machines at

airports will have so many exclusions they will not cover

anything..LOL 

[YetAnother]

21 hours ago, fatdrunkandstupid said:

Getting to stay in a country where you are despised.

so direct; and accurate; i call them the sour thai faces

[david555]

13 minutes ago, captspectre said:

FLASH! a non "o" visa is NOT a tourist visa!

but also not a resident status ,it  just extended another visa !

[fatdrunkandstupid]

20 hours ago, dutchbull said:

Chinese are not farang so it is  possible only trouble countries with too many sick Visitors Will have to proof to have good insurance like the Schengen system and Chinese Will be free of that otherwise tourism to Thailand Will drop with 50 %

I think that a good deal of Chinese are also winding up in hospitals here due to road and boating accidents.

 

I also image that the zero dollar Chinese would also have trouble paying the hospital bills.  

 

However, we hear or know little about this because we do not read and monitor Chinese press and websites.

 

[fatdrunkandstupid]

1 hour ago, captspectre said:

ARE you ready for this? hold your breath! here it comes--- I AGREE with this! to many freeloaders coming to thailand and  acting like fools and bleeding the hospital system

.

That isn't the real issue.  The real issue is that the hospital budgets are collapsing under the weight of Thailand's aging population, falling birth rate, and unworkable permanent residency program.  There just isn't enough tax revenue, and this problem will worsen moving forward.  Solution: make the rich foreigners pay for the shortfall.

[fforest1]

3 minutes ago, fatdrunkandstupid said:

That isn't the real issue.  The real issue is that the hospital budgets are collapsing under the weight of Thailand's aging population, falling birth rate, and unworkable permanent residency program.  There just isn't enough tax revenue, and this problem will worsen moving forward.  Solution: make the rich foreigners pay for the shortfall.

I think your right on the money....

[fatdrunkandstupid]

2 hours ago, Deserted said:

Will the machines accept satang?

The Satang is not actually a nationally recognized currency.

 

The tiny copper colored coins were introduced by the 7 Eleven chain many years ago as part of it's Doraemon stamp promotion.