News Forum - Anutin says reduced Test & Go insurance requirements enough to cover Covid costs

[Thaiger]

Following the CCSA’s decision yesterday to lower the insurance coverage required of overseas arrivals, the health minister says the new figure is enough to cover Covid treatment. The mandatory insurance coverage required to enter Thailand will be reduced from US$50,000 to US$20,000 from March 1. Anutin Charnvirakul says the amount was lowered in order to reduce the costs of travelling to the kingdom and to encourage more foreign tourists to visit. According to a Bangkok Post report, he says figures from the National Health Security Office indicate that treatment costs for severe Covid cases are usually around 300,000 baht per […]

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[Malc-Thai]

"The mandatory insurance coverage required to enter Thailand will be reduced from US$50,000 to US$20,000 from March 1."

 

Out of curiosity, if the insurance coverage needed has dropped by 60% does anyone know how much the premium has dropped ?

[DonG]

truly I am in total awe and admiration of the deputy PM regarding all health matters and Covid! :)

[JMichaels]

Does the amount of coverage really matter if you are asymptomatic and they refuse to pay? Just sayin'...

[PfizerModernaJohnson]

20K $ seems very low , one week ICU in Bangkok Pattaya International Hospital  :D

glad i got unlimited sum with Allianz 

Edited February 24, 2022 by PfizerModernaJohnson

[Soidog]

13 minutes ago, Malc-Thai said:

"The mandatory insurance coverage required to enter Thailand will be reduced from US$50,000 to US$20,000 from March 1."

Out of curiosity, if the insurance coverage needed has dropped by 60% does anyone know how much the premium has dropped ?

 I’ve just checked AXA Sawasdee website (the company I used in January). They haven’t changed their website to reflect the new requirements. However, when I got a quote for the same period as I did in January, the price has increased by 50%!  I got 90 day cover for around 6,200 baht back in January. This is now 9,240!!   When that increase took place I’ve no idea. 

[Graham]

What's the cost of hospitalization with the sniffles for a farang Mr. A Nut In, as the government still seems to insist on a hospital stay for this ?

[PfizerModernaJohnson]

I would never trust ANY thai insurance company 

[HolyCowCm]

Just because the requirments are lowered by A-head doesn't mean the insurance companies will reduce the fee, unless he can order them to do so. Aren't they trying to make up for money they say they lost during this covid battle?

[Soidog]

6 minutes ago, JMichaels said:

Does the amount of coverage really matter if you are asymptomatic and they refuse to pay? Just sayin'...

I doubt it changes much. The AXA Sawasdee package includes many other items in addition to Covid. The liability amount often makes little difference. Most normal travel insurance companies will cover you for £1million or more. I doubt there will be any material difference and given AXA seem to have increased their premiums in the past 6 weeks then it’s still a reasonable amount of money if you’re here for more than 30 days 

https://www.axa.co.th/en/axa-sawasdee-thailand-travel-insurance

[DoUKnowWhoIAm]

25 minutes ago, Malc-Thai said:

"The mandatory insurance coverage required to enter Thailand will be reduced from US$50,000 to US$20,000 from March 1."

Out of curiosity, if the insurance coverage needed has dropped by 60% does anyone know how much the premium has dropped ?

The premiums didn't drop when the requirenents was dropped from 100k to 50k, so I doubt anything will happen now. I have a feeling it'll rather increase.

[Guest1]

11 minutes ago, Soidog said:

 I’ve just checked AXA Sawasdee website (the company I used in January). They haven’t changed their website to reflect the new requirements. However, when I got a quote for the same period as I did in January, the price has increased by 50%!  I got 90 day cover for around 6,200 baht back in January. This is now 9,240!!   When that increase took place I’ve no idea. 

My guess s, you may get 20kUS$ coverage, now, for the price from before. So check, if AXA keeps the 50k coverage, perhaps?

[Soidog]

The comment that this reduced amount is to help tourism and reduce the costs to tourists it BS. Anutin has no way of knowing what the insurance companies will do. You can already get 30 day cover for around 3,000 baht (age doesn’t make a difference by the way). I can’t see a reduction to 20,000 changing that much. Maybe 300 baht? Every little helps but they will take the 300 baht off you soon for departure tax ! 

[Malc-Thai]

9 minutes ago, Soidog said:

 I’ve just checked AXA Sawasdee website (the company I used in January). They haven’t changed their website to reflect the new requirements. However, when I got a quote for the same period as I did in January, the price has increased by 50%!  I got 90 day cover for around 6,200 baht back in January. This is now 9,240!!   When that increase took place I’ve no idea. 

Thanks for this.. just curious because of his statement

"Anutin Charnvirakul says the amount was lowered in order to reduce the costs of travelling to the kingdom and to encourage more foreign tourists to visit."

Why on earth does he think this will make it cheaper...

[DoUKnowWhoIAm]

Is there any insurance company that fully cover for hotel quarantine if you have asymptomatic covid? I doubt you can trust AXA or Luma.

[Guest1]

2 minutes ago, Soidog said:

(age doesn’t make a difference by the way)

Which is kind of strange for an insurance for a virus infection, which has mostly gotten older people in ICU and on respirators. Don't you think?

usually calculating the personal risk would need to take in account the major "precondition", age. Ok, additional BMI, ect. would have to be checked, too, but could make it difficult. Just the age is an easy thing, it is to find in every online insurance contract!

[Soidog]

18 minutes ago, Malc-Thai said:

Why on earth does he think this will make it cheaper...

You’ve answered your own question. He doesn’t think. Very few of the government do any thinking before they open their mouth. Problem is, they know they can spout any old Shi*e to the Thais and there is nothing that will happen. They don’t need to engage the brain cell before opening their mouth. Different when it affects foreigners with the education and capability to look for logic and reason behind the statement 

[Soidog]

18 minutes ago, Guest1 said:

Which is kind of strange for an insurance for a virus infection, which has mostly gotten older people in ICU and on respirators. Don't you think?

usually calculating the personal risk would need to take in account the major "precondition", age. Ok, additional BMI, ect. would have to be checked, too, but could make it difficult. Just the age is an easy thing, it is to find in every online insurance contract!

Yes I agree. But I got a quote based on being 30 to 73  nothing changed. They wouldn’t quote for anything over 73

[Soidog]

36 minutes ago, PfizerModernaJohnson said:

I would never trust ANY thai insurance company 

Normally I wouldn’t. But as I’m planning a 30 day visa extension, I was told (rightly or wrongly) that when going to immigration to extend my visa, and not having Thai Covid insurance (or at least one specified by the Thai authorities) could cause an issue? To be fair, I also found AXA (which isn’t a Thai company as such, it’s French) was a good quote and buying it took less than 10 minutes on line

[Guest1]

3 minutes ago, Soidog said:

Yes I agree. But I got a quote based on being 30 to 73  nothing changed. They wouldn’t quote for anything over 73

Ok, so they went for statistics from the west:

About 80% of death and heavy cases have been 70+ (73+?). 

And najority if customers will be caucasian, so that is a fit.

Hiw comes, still older people can come to Thailand, with no insurance option?

Oh, I forgot, in the west, insurances can't skip the highest risks, they just can charge a bit more. But even then they create a "elder discriminatory" shit storm.

Inclusion is everything, isn't it?

[voyager]

I have no reason to doubt any government official who says that ฿20,000 insurance is enough to cover your COVID healthcare costs for 10 days, as long as they can substantiate their claim with actual examples of prices charged to tourists.

Has the government now enabled this by doing a special deal with the hospitals /hospitels, to reduce their charges? If so, it is most welcome.

But, of course, I didn't say... most unlikely.