International Health insurance in Thailand

[preben]

Well I have done some homework on www.bupathailand.com and www.thaihealth.co.th but ended up with the more expensive www.goodhealthworldwide.com. On both thaihealth and the goodhealth homepages you can do instant quotes.

I wanted a higher total coverage than Thaihealth had even on the most expensive plan (about $750/year premium) - so I chose the foundation plan from goodhealth (in/out patient/evacuation Etc.) at $1200/year with a $100 deductable.

My original plan was to just buy the major medical plan (no out-patient) from goodhealth at around $600/year but I have a lot of travelling in the cards and wanted no surprises should I suddenly need lots of outpatient treatment in Europe or elsewhere expensive.

I will still shop around in the future - but for now goodhealth will be tested. Cheers!

 

[Lancelot]

Good info Ben, I'll check it out.

Since ERing two years ago, I've been rolling the dice-no coverage...

 

[preben]

Lancelot - you wild puppy!
I actually rolled the dice for the last 3 months too - not by choice but FIREing abroad certainly have a lot of practical things to be done (and suddenly your company is not there to arrange all that); insurances, airplane ticket, address changes to home country, faxes to banks that do not accept changes by email, updating of various forms, visa-arrangements, address change to pension plan, arrange for internet/telephone Etc. in the new home Etc.

I have the brochures Etc. from the above providers - also from Sun Alliance having Ok (high for inpatient but low for out patient) coverage too at resonable prices.

Thaihealth is the best value I found (wealthy-healthy plan) if one is on a budget but would be wise to add some travel insurance when one is in USA or Europe. They sell those too (emergency/accident only) rather cheap.

While healthcare is good and cheap here it would be sad to see ones FI vaporate due to getting sick on a trip back home or a serious accident/illness here. Goodhealth estimates an evacuation from BKK to Singapore (considered the best healthcare in Asia if not the world) with brain surgery or similar and a month in hospital to cost $120k.

Cheers!

 

[spike]

You know what's crazy, I could live in Thailand with insurance for less than my insuranc costs now. Plus I could drink Singha every night.


Can you live in Thailand without being a citizen?

 

[preben]

Spike; you have seen the light!

Thaivisa.com have a lot of info on visa situation. legalthailand.com are good at handling these things.
If above 50 you can get a retirement visa, but there are multiple other ways to live here legally by getting a one year non-emmigrant visa. A tourist visa is normally 2 months but can be extended to 3 months but then you would would have to leave and come back (same day is possible).

1 year visa can after 3 renewals (normally being a formality) lead you to apply for recidency(not nationality - a bit harder).

There is also an investor visa.

Anyway; there are multiple ways to settle in here.

Cheers!

You know what's crazy, I could live in Thailand with insurance for less than my insuranc costs now.  Plus I could drink Singha every night.


Can you live in Thailand without being a citizen?

 

[mikew]

Hi
The american chamber of commerce in Japan had a interesting article about expat insurance. Seems the writer didn't like bupa or goodhealth but liked International Health Insurance danmark and Multinational Underwriters Inc.'s International Citizen Series.

http://www.accj.or.jp/document_library/Journal/1053151424.pdf

 

[preben]

Good article. Their negative points with goodhealth seems minor compared to some of the other insurances they looked at though. The emergency dental within 7 days of accident sounds a bit weird (could be in a coma!) and I will ask them about it.
As for who is the underwriters I have been satisfied enuff by my own findings. Also; it is 1.2k/year only and unless they go bankrupt just when I got really sick (could it be connected? ) it just means that one would find another insurance.
Goodhealth have NO exclusions for "dangerous" sports or aids which most of the others I have checked have. Also the big flexibility with deductables means that one can adjust yearly as ones nest egg (hopefully) grows to a larger and larger % of self insurance.
They seemed to like the goodhealth service level.
Anyway; I will let you know how they are - initial impression is good with fast email replies and online application.
Cheer!

Hi
The american chamber of commerce in Japan had a interesting article about expat insurance. Seems the writer didn't like bupa or goodhealth but liked International Health Insurance danmark and Multinational Underwriters Inc.'s International Citizen Series.

http://www.accj.or.jp/document_library/Journal/1053151424.pdf