Mandatory health insurance

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Undaunted
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Re: Mandatory health insurance

Post by Undaunted »

I also have spoken to my contact at AA insurance and he asked if I had an non immigrant O or OA visa...I have a non immigrant O visa and he said the new government policy would not apply to me...I also asked for those that it does apply to can they buy simply a small policy to cover outpatient if they are insured in Thailand for inpatient only he said at this time such policy does not exist.
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Re: Mandatory health insurance

Post by Dodger »

Gaybutton wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 2:34 pmFor most of us, that is what we call the retirement visa - This one:
I've been totally in the fog regarding this.

I received my O-A Non Immigrant Visa in the U.S. several years ago, and I understand that if I would have gotten this in Thailand it would have been classified as Type O Non Immigrant Visa. The last 3 times I renewed my visa here in Thailand they simply stamp the visa as "Retirement" exactly as you stated. The classification ( O-A or O) does not appear on any of the stamps they've applied in the past 3 years...just "Retirement.

My question is, do you know if I have a type O - or type O-A visa now? When they started stamping "Retirement" did that eliminate this classification...or possibly it defaults to type O? Any advice appreciated.

Also, I received the same information as Undaunted did regarding outpatient coverage. The companies AA brokers apparently don't sell separate outpatient policies.

I know you use Cigna. Do you know if they could just add 40,000 THB outpatient coverage to your existing policy?
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Re: Mandatory health insurance

Post by Gaybutton »

Dodger wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 3:29 pm My question is, do you know if I have a type O - or type O-A visa now? When they started stamping "Retirement" did that eliminate this classification...or possibly it defaults to type O? Any advice appreciated.
First, as for Cigna I have not yet checked with them about adding outpatient to my policy.

To check whether your visa is O or O-A, look at the photos on this post: https://www.gaybuttonthai.com/viewtopic ... =30#p93657

If your current visa looks like the top photo, it's an O
If your current visa looks like the bottom photo, it's an O-A
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Re: Mandatory health insurance

Post by Dodger »

Gaybutton wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 4:36 pmIf your current visa looks like the top photo, it's an O
If your current visa looks like the bottom photo, it's an O-A
Thank you.

My last 3 visa stamps are exactly as shown in the top photo. I'm hoping this will translate to good news.

By-the-way, Cigna, which you have always highly recommended, are by far the most responsive company I have dealt with to date. I'm still considering the options, but in all honestly, I'm still leaning heavily towards remaining self-insured. I've done the arithmetic and considered the costs and potential risks associated with both options several times and keep coming up with the same conclusion.

If I hadn't chose Thailand as the place to retire my opinions on this would be totally different, but the cost of healthcare here is just too low to justify paying a health insurance company to do for me what I can do for myself. I completely erased the name Bangkok Pattaya Hospital from my ledger when doing my arithmetic. Their medical charges are so far over-the-top that I'm surprised the insurance company's will even approve their claims...and from what I understand there are some who don't.

I guess we'll have one more month of confusion and chaos - unless this thing just got started as one Big Joke.
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Re: Mandatory health insurance

Post by Undaunted »

I believe that if you applied for your visa in your home country it is an O-A visa if applied for in Thailand it is an O visa both non immigrant........this distinction makes no sense!

If you want to add outpatient your existing policy you must pay a lot more for a lot more outpatient coverage you cannot add a supplement or 40,000 to an existing policy.
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Re: Mandatory health insurance

Post by Up2u »

All the reports and government websites refer the longstay applicants here:

https://longstay.tgia.org/

Pacific Cross has a plan that interests me:

https://www.pacificcrosshealth.com/heal ... stay-visa/
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Re: Mandatory health insurance

Post by 2lz2p »

Dodger wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 5:19 pm GB wrote:
If your current visa looks like the top photo, it's an O
If your current visa looks like the bottom photo, it's an O-A
Thank you.

My last 3 visa stamps are exactly as shown in the top photo. I'm hoping this will translate to good news.
The top stamp is an extension of stay based on retirement. The original visa that the first extension and later extensions of stay applied to could be an "O" , "O-A", or even another category so long as it was a Non-Immigrant Visa. The original Visa will be in your passport unless you obtained a new passport since your first one year extension of stay. If you have changed passports and had your "history" transferred from the old to the new, there will be a stamp showing the Visa that was used initially used for granting the first and subsequent one year permissions to stay.

The question still remains since the article re health insurance mentioned renewal of the O-A as well as entry the O-A - does that mean it applies if one goes back to their home country to apply for another O-A or does it mean if you are renewing an extension of stay when your original visa was an O-A? At this stage, since Immigration has not chimed in, it may or may not be the case as the original announcement was from the Ministry of Public Health and I doubt the person(s) from that Ministry are conversant with how Immigration operates or that retirees could have entered Thailand under a different category other than the O-A Visa.
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Re: Mandatory health insurance

Post by gera »

I am wondering whether elite card will now include health insurance requirement?
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Re: Mandatory health insurance

Post by Dodger »

Up2u wrote: Wed May 22, 2019 6:02 pmAll the reports and government websites refer the longstay applicants here:
Interesting how these government websites start referring people to these long term stay healthcare providers, when in fact, a final decision about the healthcare mandate hasn't even been made yet. Also interesting, is that these websites link people to a site which only promotes Thai insurance companies when in fact there are also foreign owned companies like LMG and Aetna who also have tailored long stay health insurance policies. I guess they just forgot to mention them.

First they toss this half-baked proposal out there...create a shock wave across the entire expat community (again) and immediately start promoting Thai insurance companies to remedy the fear that they intentionally created. All of this maneuvering and posturing before a final decision has even been made? Doesn't make sense. Doesn't add up.

You know something, they got me the first time with the visa renewal fiasco which ended up having a lot of foreigners opening new bank accounts with Thai banks in order to comply with the new direct deposit requirements which of course creates additional revenue for Thai banks, all under the guise of farang over stayers creating the problem. Now, 3 months later, they apply the very same tactic: Toss the bait out there in a few news releases and website postings...see how the fish react to the bait...let the shock set in...set the hook.

I believe their actions at creating confusion and shock are planned and intentional. I also believe that their primary motive is to make more money, not as an effort to save money as they would have us believe. In short, they're just pissing down our backs and telling us it's raining out.

All said, we don't have any choice but to sit back and see what develops.
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