Health insurance qualifications

OA retirement visa requires a health insurance while O does not. Both require you to be at least 50 year old. Most people go for the O visa as far as I know.

@madbrain

Free quotes available on the expat.com health insurance in Thailand page, here.

1) what kind of medical underwriting do insurance companies do for Thailand expats, if any ?2) will the policy be completely denied if the health issues are too serious?3) if i cannot qualify for insurance, will that then prevent me from living in Thailand ?4) if I do qualify for insurance, will the insurance cover my pre-existing conditions or not ?I tried searching for answers to these questions for years, but could never find them anywhere on the internet, which is odd in this day and age. I tried contacting insurance companies as well, and none got back to me. I do not want to submit any application before knowing the answers to these questions. -[at]madbrain

Hello,

To answer your questions:

1/ I don't understand its meaning.

2/ All insurance companies work pretty much the same way, Thai or international:

- registration, some payment (ask to pass the check-up and medical questionnaire before any payment, otherwise in case of refusal, the company will reimburse you but with a delay).

- medical questionnaire

- hospital check-up in Thailand (If you are already at the check-up stage, the company will probably ask you to pay for it. Refuse. The company should cover the costs).

Then the answer:

- file accepted, full insurance according to the chosen formula

- file accepted, but with restrictions, in particular pre-existing conditions will not be covered

- complete refusal and reimbursement

Note that the answer is based solely on statistics. A refusal does not mean that one is in poor health, but that pre-existing conditions are considered as being able to evolve and exceed the proposed coverage. For example, the simple fact of having a high cholesterol level, even if returned to normal by medication, is considered a comorbidity and can lead to a refusal.

3/ It depends on the visa you are going to apply for. The OA visa requires insurance among those listed on a specific site. Other visas do not require any special insurance, if no mistake. In addition, after entering Thailand with a tourist visa, it can be changed to NON-IMM O under certain conditions and depending on the Immigration office you depend. You will find specialized private intermediate offices in all major cities where there are many expatriates (contacts on Facebook for example).Given the influx of expats in Thailand, they are well aware of all possible cases and will represent you at Immigration. But you can very well do the procedures yourself.

So, first of all, I advise you to come to Thailand with a tourist visa, because if you enter Thailand with a visa exemption, changing it to a long-term visa is almost impossible. Please, don't make a final decision before you spend a long time in the country. A few weeks of vacation and a full-time expatriation are very different, particularly for health insurance. Also note that the health insurance company will ask you what visa you are staying under. A TR visa should result in a refusal on their part.

You can stay up to 60 days, an extension of 30 additional days is possible. Once there, you will contact these private offices and they will provide you with useful information, in particular to find out how you can stay in Thailand all year round by changing your type of visa. Please check those informations about visas on the Thai Embassy website of your own country, because I'm French.

Good luck !

@JonSt

Thank you very much. I just read this response because I had an issue with the notifications on the forum.

We can easily meet the financial requirements of the OA visa. My spouse is over 50 already. I still have to wait until June 2026, unfortunately.

Even if insurance not required by the O visa, it's completely impossible for us to live without caring for our pre-existing medical conditions. If we can't get proper medical insurance, we just won't be able to move to Thailand - the choice of visa will be moot.

@Aidan in HCMC

Thank you. I am reluctant to just apply and input all our medical history, only to be denied, and have all that medical information shared with all the the other insurers, which is what used to happen in the US before Obamacare.

I posted this thread because I'm wondering what's disqualifying and what might be covered or not.

Is there any Thai insurance agent, independent of any single insurance company, who might be able to assist ?

Bonjour,

I can't seem to figure out how to quote your lengthy message, unfortunately. And I can't delete this one. Let me try one more time.

1) what kind of medical underwriting do insurance companies do for Thailand expats, if any ?2) will the policy be completely denied if the health issues are too serious?3) if i cannot qualify for insurance, will that then prevent me from living in Thailand ?4) if I do qualify for insurance, will the insurance cover my pre-existing conditions or not ?I tried searching for answers to these questions for years, but could never find them anywhere on the internet, which is odd in this day and age. I tried contacting insurance companies as well, and none got back to me. I do not want to submit any application before knowing the answers to these questions. -[at]madbrain
Hello,
To answer your questions:
1/ I don't understand its meaning.
2/ All insurance companies work pretty much the same way, Thai or international:

- registration, some payment (ask to pass the check-up and medical questionnaire before any payment, otherwise in case of refusal, the company will reimburse you but with a delay).
- medical questionnaire
- hospital check-up in Thailand (If you are already at the check-up stage, the company will probably ask you to pay for it. Refuse. The company should cover the costs).

Then the answer:

- file accepted, full insurance according to the chosen formula
- file accepted, but with restrictions, in particular pre-existing conditions will not be covered
- complete refusal and reimbursement

Note that the answer is based solely on statistics. A refusal does not mean that one is in poor health, but that pre-existing conditions are considered as being able to evolve and exceed the proposed coverage. For example, the simple fact of having a high cholesterol level, even if returned to normal by medication, is considered a comorbidity and can lead to a refusal.

3/ It depends on the visa you are going to apply for. The OA visa requires insurance among those listed on a specific site. Other visas do not require any special insurance, if no mistake. In addition, after entering Thailand with a tourist visa, it can be changed to NON-IMM O under certain conditions and depending on the Immigration office you depend. You will find specialized private intermediate offices in all major cities where there are many expatriates (contacts on Facebook for example).Given the influx of expats in Thailand, they are well aware of all possible cases and will represent you at Immigration. But you can very well do the procedures yourself.

So, first of all, I advise you to come to Thailand with a tourist visa, because if you enter Thailand with a visa exemption, changing it to a long-term visa is almost impossible. Please, don't make a final decision before you spend a long time in the country. A few weeks of vacation and a full-time expatriation are very different, particularly for health insurance. Also note that the health insurance company will ask you what visa you are staying under. A TR visa should result in a refusal on their part.

You can stay up to 60 days, an extension of 30 additional days is possible. Once there, you will contact these private offices and they will provide you with useful information, in particular to find out how you can stay in Thailand all year round by changing your type of visa. Please check those informations about visas on the Thai Embassy website of your own country, because I'm French.

Good luck ! - @Goodmorningthailand

1) Medical underwriting is the process that insurers use to make decisions about who and what to cover or not cover, and at what cost

2) Our medical history is very lengthy. Without going too much into details, there are about 30 pills/capsules in my daily pillbox, and it's been a similar number for nearly 2 decades. If something as benign as high cholesterol is going to lead to a denial, it sounds like there is no point in even bothering to apply for private insurance in Thailand. Indeed, we would never be able to qualify for private insurance in the US where we currently live either, except through an employer or Obamacare. Neither employer-based insurance or Obamacare are allowed to perform medical underwriting/questionnaires. I already stopped working, and my spouse will probably stop too, so Obamacare will soon be the only US option for us. But of course Trump has vowed to end Obamacare. He did in his last term, also, and failed. He might succeed this time, at which point we would be forced to expatriate.

Is private insurance the only option for non-citizens in Thailand ? I thought there might be some government funded programs that might apply, at least for some subset of our medical conditions.

I know that many prescriptions that are very costly brand names in the US and Europe have cheap generics available in many Asian countries, including Thailand. The vast majority of our medical costs are drugs. It may be possible to pay for all of them out of pocket, but it depends if they are 1/2, 1/10th or 1/100th of the US retail price. I was able to find that my most expensive drug costs about $1,700/year in Thailand, and $57,000/year in the US, without insurance, so the Thai cost is 3% of US cost in this particular case. I know the 3% doesn't hold for hospitalizations, though. It's more like 33% for that. But of course hospitalizations are quite rare, not an annual occurrence.

3) I do hold a French passport also, and could come back to that country, where our healthcare would presumably be covered by sécurité sociale. I grew up in France and lived there for 2 decades. I really dislike the climate/weather in Ile de France. The south may be an option. I would much rather live in Thailand, though. I have taken a sufficient number of vacations to Thailand to know that's where I would rather be.

Thanks for the advise to enter on a tourist visa. We are not going to uproot ourselves on a whim, obviously. We have been thinking about moving to Thailand in retirement for many years. How to cover our healthcare is the biggest concern. But there are others, too. Being a guest in another country, with the possibility of a visa not being renewed, and also being unable to fully own a home is a bit of an issue. I have rented only 18 months my entire life, and then only in a country I held citizenship in.

I understand your situation very well, I can only make a few remarks so as not to repeat my previous message:

- Private insurance companies all work the same way. Besides, most of the big companies in Thailand are local branches of international insurances (AXA, April, Allianz, Swiss, AIA, etc.) Going through the medical questionnaire is mandatory, and indeed, if you have complex pre-existing conditions, which are already not covered in your home country, it will be certainly the same here, IMO.

- To give you an idea of ​​the level of severity and how the clientele is sorted, I only have vitamin B12 in my pillbox, my doctor finds my health profile very ordinary on my page and harmless. What will happen in 10 years? This is the question that insurance companies must anticipate : so, my medical file was rejected everywhere, or accepted but with so much exclusions...

- As for the help that a Thai insurer could provide, I do not see how. On the one hand, an insurance broker is a simple commercial intermediary. He does not manage the medical side, which is handled by the company's doctor who himself relies on actuaries. On the other hand, he is bound by confidentiality clauses and does not have the right to transmit sensitive information relating to his job. I have met several friendly brokers here, and they all gave me the same answer. Note also that my own daughter in Bangkok is employed by the local branch of an international health insurance company, and she does not give any information to her own father (which is a mark of her professionalism).

By the way, Thai domestic insurances are not really interesting : low coverage, very low annual reimbursement limits, no English-speaking staff, etc.

One point of your message may be interesting: if you are a French citizen, you should contact the CFE (Caisse des Français de l'Etranger) , which is the extension of government health insurance for French expatriates. I doubt you are eligible to apply since you have never had French social security before, but in Thailand it fully covers long-term illnesses (according to a list), 70% of hospitalization costs in approved hospitals, and a good portion of other medical and pharmacy costs.

Good luck !

@Aidan in HCMC
Thank you. I am reluctant to just apply and input all our medical history, only to be denied, and have all that medical information shared with all the the other insurers, which is what used to happen in the US before Obamacare.
I posted this thread because I'm wondering what's disqualifying and what might be covered or not.
Is there any Thai insurance agent, independent of any single insurance company, who might be able to assist ? - @madbrain

You're welcome, madbrain, and understood.

To maintain anonymity, you could simply use an alias.

Hi, here is my thoughts.

You say you hold a French passport you may also have a sécurité sociale card or can apply for one.

I would 1st travel to France and get your sécurité sociale cRd and then ask for the add on insurance to cover you outside of France.

I do not remember the cost but it was less then what you may have to pay a insurance company here in Thailand.

Your USA insurance will not cover you here in Thailand and they will not be able to give you a rider for coverage out side the USA I believe.

If you fully intend to move to Thailand with severe health problems it's your choice but remember that you are not a citizen here in Thailand and they will not provide you with assistance if you need it. You are responsible for yourself and your decisions.

I would pick France to live in with severe health problems if I had rights to their sécurité sociale. Than to move to Thailand that will require you to pay for your health problems out of pocket. 

But that is what I think.

Good luck in choosing the right choice.