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

[optad]

The visa thing is a blind. They force compliance alla USA. At point of need. No money no fix. 

[scorecard]

3 minutes ago, Muzarella said:

A goodl accident insurance by a Thai company is about 6000 TH/year. The typycal tourist visa runs for about 2 months. Will be no ptoblerms in charge an insurance  "fee" at entry of 500TH to tourist,  and another 500TH on every 3  months extension, or even 6000TH to every one year retirement or work extension to uninsured foreigners. In most countries tourist and foreigners have to have a credit card to get medical attention if not having insurance. Asking Thailand to do for free, do not make sense, and probably is a burden to Thai hospitals at the moment. In my opinion any car or motorbike rental needs to includes mandatory accident insurance. 

 

Not much detail yet, hopefully some detail soon give some initial clarity re:

 

- Does the proposed policy cover accidents only (and what are the exclusions), or

 

- Does it cover any / all general sickness (sudden appendix attack, severe food poisoning etc etc.) plus all accidents (and overall what are the exclusions).  

[CLW]

Rubbish. Cannot get insurance here if over 70. I am 82. Do  I have to leave and take my millions of baht with me?

Talking about travel insurance for tourist purpose not about general health insurance

[jonclark]

3 minutes ago, Muzarella said:

A goodl accident insurance by a Thai company is about 6000 TH/year. The typycal tourist visa runs for about 2 months. Will be no ptoblerms in charge an insurance  "fee" at entry of 500TH to tourist,  and another 500TH on every 3  months extension, or even 6000TH to every one year retirement or work extension to uninsured foreigners. In most countries tourist and foreigners have to have a credit card to get medical attention if not having insurance. Asking Thailand to do for free, do not make sense, and probably is a burden to Thai hospitals at the moment. In my opinion any car or motorbike rental needs to includes mandatory accident insurance. 

All cars and motorbikes legally must have insurance rentals or otherwise - the vehicle is often what is insured (which includes the people inside). 

 

The insurance for a scooter, basically covers the cost of wiping your remains off the pavements and comes when you tax the scooterand if memory serves me correctly its called por raw bor  (phonetic Thai sucks - sorry.) There is some accident insurance but it is minimal. This could be the same for a car too, in addition to the above mentioned car insurance. 

[wgdanson]

3 minutes ago, Wake Up said:

Who in their right mind would ever live or visit a place where they feel they are despised by the locals???

Hard to grasp some of the odd humor bitter posts on TV. Do more of what makes you happy and do it in a place you enjoy ----any place that you enjoy --but don't waste precious time in a place you despise or feel despised. Peace ?

When are you going back, out of Thailand?

[jonclark]

3 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

You cannot get a tourist visa to UK without a valid health insurance policy, been there and done it three times.

Well someone at the UK embassy hasn't been doing there job properly then as we have had probably in the region of 18+ visas and never shown documents for insurance once? So I am surprised to hear that. 

[wgdanson]

Is it not on the visa application form somewhere. But of course, somebody MIGHT not be doing job properly. Did you have to have fingerprints done EVERY time at VFS, as we did.

[rasg]

Sounds like a good plan to me. It's not expensive. Easy to implement. Turn up at immigration. No insurance. No entry. Easy. Just make sure you buy it before you go.

 

It should be introduced in the UK asap.

 

No medical insurance required for a UK visit visa. It's  sensible thing to have but not a requirement.

Edited June 5, 2017 by rasg

[4MyEgo]

I would be thinking that the plan would be more so to make sure that those of us, i.e. expats residing here have health insurance, because this rumour about tourists having to take out health insurance would kill their tourist industry and they wouldn't want that, it is not mandatory in other countries and I am sure all countries factor tourists having accidents in their country, i.e. a numbers game, how many have and how many do not, what is the revenue they make Vs the loss in unpaid hospital bills.

 

Watch this space....

[Thaidream]

Since Thailand keeps wanting to increase it's numbers of tourists as well as advertise it is a paradise for retiree's then it has to accept the risk that there will be times that foreigners will not have insurance or the insurance will not cover.  It happens with their own citizens.

 

Healthcare and emergency services are a human right- Every European country  and Japan and Canada adheres to this principle. Thailand needs to stop emulating America in healthcare policy and start emulating the Universal Declaration of Rights.

[ironman and the hyena]

Interesting the government wants all tourists to be insured and the Thai hospitals are blatantly scamming insurance companies still with extremely inflated bills despite a "crack down" on this by the Thai government. Sounds like there's going to be a lot more money lining the pockets of officials if this goes through.

[kurtmartens]

38 minutes ago, jonclark said:

My wife has never been asked for insurance to the Uk when we go every year/ 

My wife wasn't asked for proof of insurance for her US 10 year visa either.

[off road pat]

14 minutes ago, wakeupplease said:

Probably because the UK is a Civilised country with less scams going on.

Hmmm,...my wife had to have a travel insurance to get a Schengen visa, the first time she came over as a tourist and I think this is a great thing. nothing to do with civilised. It's a smart thing, because you never know what's going to happen and medical costs can ruin a person. personalty, my travel insurance has saved my life once and paid for my 20 days private hospital costs and had me and my wife repatriated in Business class to my country.

a second time they paid my 10 days private hospital costs and repatriated us again in business class !!!, so? nothing but great thoughts about my travel insurance !!!,....lucky I didn't have to beg on Thai Visa to pay for my hospital and repatriation costs...!?!?!?

[Bung]

Will they use any of the money they make improving road safety? 

 

Wii there be less tourists crashing scooters in shorts and t shirt with no helmets then beg the internet to fly them home? 

 

Who will really profit from this scheme? 

[kurtmartens]

4 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

Healthcare and emergency services are a human right- Every European country  and Japan and Canada adheres to this principle. Thailand needs to stop emulating America in healthcare policy and start emulating the Universal Declaration of Rights.

Who says its a human right?  The UN?  When the UN stops taking US tax dollars with 1 hand and bashing the US with the other ... I'll have a little more respect for them.  

[mikosan]

41 minutes ago, maxisrael said:

I am 71 and still have insurance at BUPA and will not be kicked out as long as i pay my premium.

You are lucky.  I have health insurance for Thailand, but this will not be renewable when I reach 70.  Fortunately that is some time yet and I probably won't last that long anyway! 555

[bbbbooboo]

hmmm.... this will certainly boost tourist numbers.....hehe

[whaleboneman]

1 hour ago, Toshiba66 said:

I am not aware of any other country enforcing this. My Thai GF came to Australia for a holiday with no insurance also. This sounds just too crazy. Every week there seems to be something published more stupid than the week before. Is there some kind of competition going on in Government to see who can come up with the biggest dumb arse idea?

Cuba used to have this policy. However, I was just there last month without insurance so I guess they have abandoned it for some reason.

[chilli42]

Excellent idea!!  That's why these guys get paid the big bucks. One can only hope the cost is exorbitantly high.  It will assure the riff raff take their business elsewhere.

[Thaidream]

This is  pure greed on the part of Thai Hospitals- they already treat their citizens under the 30 Baht scheme.  If Thailand wants huge amounts of tourists to enter and wants expats to reside in Thailand they need to be prepared to cover everyone under the 30 Baht scheme.

Putting machines at airport entry points is a no starter- the cost would be huge.  I have been reading about putting in fingerprint scanners at entry points for almost 10 years now- no scanners seen.

The number of foreign tourists or expats that need medical scare and don't have resources to pay is miniscule compared to the numbers coming in and reside here. I have been to many Thai Hospitals in the private sector- you don't get treated unless you can pay and are referred to a government hospital.

Whether one believes in the United Nations Declaration of Rights or not- Healthcare is a human right and almost every country in the World adheres to it as well as the medical profession itself.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

If it's anything like the rest of Thailand 4.0, the insurance vending machines at the airport will only take CASH!!!!  

[The Dark Lord]

Having just suffered and paid for a dreadful mis diagnosis  in a top local hospital followed by ( what I hope is) a correct diagnosis with painful corrections to the initial one as well as expensive treatment for the correct diagnosis after having changed hospital , I  welcome a local insurance. That way the scamming ( as practiced by most hospitals on foreigners to differing levels) will be Thai scam Thai 

Edited June 5, 2017 by The Dark Lord
Auto spell disagreement

[ksamuiguy]

The 30 baht plan finally caught up with them, just took longer!

[david555]

they should think or include a repatriation medical flight ...., as many western country subject have the governmental nanny state free health care ......in many cases problem solved for Thailand AND the tourist so he is not gone be shaving" money bold " and taken care of in his own language .....by by money for The Bankok Hospitals prime profit

[janclaes47]

3 minutes ago, The Dark Lord said:

Having just suffered and paid for a steep isdiagnosis in a top local hospital followed by ( what I hope is) a correct diagnosis with painful corrections to the initial one as well as expensive treatment for the correct diagnosis, I  welcome a local insurance. That way the scamming ( as practiced by most hospitals on foreigners to differing levels) will be Thai scam Thai 

So you think this insurance will cover all medical issues, be treated at top hospitals, or will even be available for people on anything other than a tourist visa?

 

You gonna be disappointed as in my opinion this will be only available to tourists, cover the same as a travel insurance, and only available for treatment at government hospitals.

[The Dark Lord]

2 minutes ago, janclaes47 said:

So you think this insurance will cover all medical issues, be treated at top hospitals, or will even be available for people on anything other than a tourist visa?

 

You gonna be disappointed as in my opinion this will be only available to tourists, cover the same as a travel insurance, and only available for treatment at government hospitals.

You might well be right my friend, you might well be right. 

[nellyp]

48 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

You cannot get a tourist visa to UK without a valid health insurance policy, been there and done it three times.

This doesn't say you need any

https://www.gov.uk/standard-visitor-visa/documents-you-must-provide

 

[juice777]

I think it would be just people with any type of visas. Of dose happen how long till it starts you think?

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[ben2talk]

It's a joke. The headline says 'WILL' - meaning definite. Then the subheading says 'the idea has been put forward' which just means some idiot said 'hey, we can solve the problem of uninsured hospital patients by making insurance compulsory, right?'. 

 

Unless they are floating their own fully comprehensive policy, or publish a list of compulsory inclusions, this is an impossible statement...

 

It's almost as funny as saying 'we will eradicate rain and traffic jams followed by corruption'. You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried - and it wouldn't be half as funny when you tried.

[smotherb]

3 hours ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

Impossible to enforce. Will never pass.

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

gee, it would seem that simply denying entry to another foreigner who cannot produce an active insurance card or B300k in cash may do it; however, Khao San road vendors would probably offer fake insurance cards from any insurance company within a day or two