Phuket Poll: Should travel insurance be compulsory?

[webfact]

Phuket Poll: Should travel insurance be compulsory?

Phuket News

 

Many tourists need hospital treatment while on holiday in Thailand, but who should be picking up the bill? Photo: PR Dept / file

 

PHUKET: -- News broke this week that all foreign tourists will soon be required to have travel insurance before entering Thailand under a proposal put forward by a committee of the Tourism and Sports Ministry.

 

According to a report from the Bangkok Post, citing an “informed source”, the proposal will be forwarded for consideration by the national tourism policy commission. 

 

The concept is not new, and initially surfaced in 2013. 

 

In that push, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) worked with private insurance companies to create a policy that cost only B650 but provided medical coverage of up to B1 million. 

 

However, apparently that coverage was not attractive enough, and in 2015 the Royal Thai Government spent about B420 million covering the medical costs of tourists who had no travel insurance.

 

Currently, any visitors to Thailand – including tourists and expats staying on non-immigrant visas – are entitled to receive free medical treatment at government hospitals, though there are limits on which medical treatments are free.

 

Full story:  http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-poll-should-travel-insurance-be-compulsory-62482.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2017-06-07

[tomwct]

Yes, in Phuket the Tourists get free insurance! Enjoy!

[trogers]

And the cost of travel insurance is? Peanuts.

 

The only travelers feeled burden by peanuts are those on shoestring budgets, like the one begging to gather funds for his travels.

 

 

[fatdrunkandstupid]

Phuket Gazette a bit late to this party. 

 

But obviously couldn't let the opportunity to jump on this new click bait topic go by.

[LivinginKata]

Yes ...

[yasorab]

Albeit a good idea I believe people should have the right to choose. Silly not to but it's an individuals statutory rights of choice

Sent from my SM-J120H using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[laislica]

If you are young, it's easy but we all age.

Did you ever try to get health insurance after 70?

Even simple accident insurance with Kasikorn stops at 70!

Will there be a subsidy for the over 70's?

 

Quote

As well as being perceived as a higher risk due to ill health, older holidaymakers are increasingly travelling further afield which also pushes up the cost of premiums, as medical costs are much higher outside of Europe.

In general, insurance companies will band older customers into an age bracket of 55-65 and then 65-74. After this, insurance will usually go up annually, or every five years, depending on the provider - so if you're looking for cover aged 75, cover could get costly.

Edited June 7, 2017 by laislica
to add a quote from a website

[fatdrunkandstupid]

6 minutes ago, laislica said:

If you are young, it's easy but we all age.

Did you ever try to get health insurance after 70?

Even simple accident insurance with Kasikorn stops at 70!

Will there be a subsidy for the over 70's?

 

Quote

As well as being perceived as a higher risk due to ill health, older holidaymakers are increasingly travelling further afield which also pushes up the cost of premiums, as medical costs are much higher outside of Europe.

In general, insurance companies will band older customers into an age bracket of 55-65 and then 65-74. After this, insurance will usually go up annually, or every five years, depending on the provider - so if you're looking for cover aged 75, cover could get costly.

No body wants you when you are old.

[wgdanson]

48 minutes ago, fatdrunkandstupid said:

No body wants you when you are old.

Except the mortuary !!!!!

[pattjock]

It would be impossible to check everyone's insurance policy in hundreds of different languages.

 

There used to be an airport tax to be payed when you left the country. This is now included in the price of the ticket.

 

They say that hospital care to tourists cost the country B420million, there are about 30 million tourists per year. Why don't they just increase the charge on the ticket by 15Baht and divert that to the health budget.

 

 

[YetAnother]

compulsory, as well as an ankle bracelet

[ksamuiguy]

How many Legal Tourists have accidents here in Thailand that require hospital visits?

Would be interesting to know if the requirement is justified, we only hear about the VIP or Horrific ones.

 

All public transportation and all vans,, motorcycle taxis, motor cycle rentals should all include accident insurance in the rental price.

No exceptions, if needed a Pre-paid stamp from the post office needs to be affixed to all rental contracts. If I am correct No insurance company I know of will pay if the driver does not have a valid driving license. Another problem for rental guy.

Or just make it easy add to the visa price and charge Visa on Arrival when they enter "The Kingdom"

 

[Old Croc]

16 hours ago, wgdanson said:

16 hours ago, fatdrunkandstupid said:

No body wants you when you are old.

Except the mortuary !!!!!

Not true in Thailand, as long as you have money.

[Old Croc]

When I used to come for short visits here, the cheapest travel insurance I could get was  something like 2000 baht. Making it compulsory on arrival for the very cheap price of 650 would upset a number of health insurers in countries like Australia as they lose many of their customers .. They may decide to reciprocate for Thai citizens at local rates.

 

This proposal would raise significantly more revenue than the current shortfalls caused by foreigners needing treatment in public hospitals. It smells a bit like a revenue raising tax on travellers. 

It is also unclear how it would apply for serious accident cases in private hospitals involving specialist treatment and a possible medivac.  The stated limit on payouts wouldn't cover all costs of some cases.

Would the extra cost deter some cheap package tourists  from coming?

How does it work for people living here on temporary extensions?

 

If the only reason for making TI compulsory is to cover the stated costs of foreigner treatment in public hospitals (about 240 mill baht in 2015), I think this relatively small amount could be covered in the budget,  especially considering the major financial windfall tourists bring to the country. Over 30 million tourists enter the kingdom each year.

 

However, individuals should still buy normal travel insurance to guard against that major life-threatening event, and not expect others to donate costs.

[Ulic]

Health insurance and travel insurance or completely different things. As for travel insurance, the

biggest issue is the fine print. Many people purchase it. Because they don't get in a accident

or suffer a stroke or heart attack there are no issues. However when they do have an accident

or have a stroke/heart attack they discover they are not covered. Pre-existing condition, incorrectly

filling out the form and not following procedures invalidate their coverage. No fine print, inexpensive

emergency insurance available for purchase in Thailand would be a step in the right direction.

[Reigntax]

Many credit cards automatically include travel and health insurance as an included feature as long as the primary card holder accompanies  the family and at least $500 for each person is purchased on the card. Book your flights on one card, your accomodation on another and you can just about cover any exclusions.

[madmitch]

From what I have seen, Cuba is the only country in the world at the moment that insists upon travel health insurance for visitors and they have counters set up in the Immigration area to sell insurance to anyone arriving without it. Many more countries require expats to have adequate insurance and others e.g. Schengen insist upon travel insurance when applying for a visa.

 

Personally I believe everyone should carry insurance but also feel that a compulsory system such as that suggested is not workable for several reasons:

 

Extra work for Immigration officials, meaning longer queues;

Policies in different languages, even scripts;

Policies may be online only;

Coverage would still preclude sickness due to pre-existing conditions;

Policy exclusions apply, and we've seen a number of recent examples of this, therefore in the event of an accident where the victim is under the influence of alcohol or riding a motorcycle with no helmet, for example, it's likely the policy won't pay.

 

If treatment of uninsured persons is eating into valuable hospital funds, then maybe it's time for the Government to get creative, work with an insurance company and come up with a scheme whereby uninsured tourists could be covered in the event of hospitalisation. Premium could be covered by increased visa fees, airport taxes, even a small land border admission fee, to be transferred to a Government run captive insurance company which would purchase reinsurance to  protect against high limit claims.

 

Most people would still buy travel insurance anyway to cover items such as cancellation, baggage loss and repatriation as well as medical.