Thailand to require health insurance for 1-year visa extensions

In what is starting to seem like an endless trail of "encouraging the long-term population to move away" Thailand has yet again hit the expat population with another zinger that is no-doubt going to chase away even more foreign investment.

For a country that routinely boo-hoo's about how their tourism numbers are dwindling (their GDP is 20% based on tourism) they certainly seem to be dead set on encouraging an increasing number of people to look elsewhere for residence. I can't make any sense of it but I do have some conspiracy theories.

source

The order, which was issued by Royal Thai Police Commissioner-General Chakthip Chaijinda, states that all foreign residents that are here on Non Immigrant O and A visas are required to have insurance for 40,000 outpatient and 400,000 inpatient (this is in Thai Baht.) Which isn't even a huge policy but here is where I start having my suspicions about what is really going on here.

there is no precedent of abuse

The official claim is that the government is "fed up" with foreigners getting sick over here and then skipping out on massive hospital bills. Which would be reasonable if that sort of thing actually happens. However, they fail to provide even ONE example of this actually being the case and instead just pull numbers out of the sky and present them as facts.

I have been here for 15 years and only know of one person who has ever skipped out on a medical bill and that person was here visiting on a tourist visa, which this new law wouldn't affect anyway.

I know a lot of long-term residents and they come from countries like Canada, Australia, England, or other European countries that have a National Health Care service. These same people are also normally retired and their plan works like this: For small stuff they pay cash at the hospital; if something big arises they get on a flight and go get care in their own countries. None of them take advantage of the social welfare in this country because it doesn't exist. If you go to a fancy hospital in this country... the first thing they do is make sure you can pay the bill before they even see you.

Insurance companies are well-known lobbyists

source

I'm not a big fan of insurance companies since they are all sunshine and rainbows until you actually try to make a claim. There are so many methods of them getting out of paying for you when you need them the most. Because this has become increasingly well-known many people over here instead keep a "nest egg" of money rather than pay money to an insurance company. Also, in Thailand if you want to have "health insurance" you also are forced to buy mandatory "life insurance" whether you want to or not.

That being said I have some Thai friends who are insurance agents and they have told me that policy numbers have been down for many years, many agents have had to seek additional jobs because there is no one left to sell to and many of the people who might have been potential clients in the past are concerned about the corruption and high level of claim denials.

So what better way to drum up new sales than to call your friends in the government and force several million or so new customers into purchasing a product they do not want or need? It's perfect!

---

Corruption is nothing new in this country (or most any country) but this level of obvious-ness is just alarming. There is no monetary drain on the government coffers as they claim (without evidence) and the insurance companies just happen to be experiencing a 3 year decline in business?

This problem becomes two-fold when you consider that a lot of the retirees over here are in their 60's and 70's and have never had insurance because they come from countries that have "free" health care. I don't know if you are familiar with how health insurance works, but if you are in your 70's seeking to get health insurance for the first time... it is going to cost an absolute fortune and in some instances the insurance company will decline to offer a policy.

Thus far, the government reaction to the expat outcry of foul-play has been one of "If you don't like it, you can get out." Unfortunately for the government, i don't think this is going to pan out like they hope. A large quantity of the people I know who have been here happily for many years are putting the plan in motion to depart a country that they have called home for many years. I am one of those people.

The city i currently live in has the the highest expat percentage of any Thai city at 10% (nearly 100,000 expatriates.) Economists have suggested that if just 20,000 of those 100,000 were to "get fed up and leave" that the economic impact of this exodus would be devastating to Chiang Mai, particularly in the housing sector.

There is a massive campaign for many developing countries in this, and many other parts of the world to lure people in as expats for the purpose of retiring and as such, spending their relatively massive pensions in a country that would otherwise receive none of this financial benefit.

I really can't understand the short-sighted thinking of this current administration nor do i think they will realize what they have done until it is too late. I fear that they will only understand the wide-reaching impact of their continued authoritarianism once the door has already closed and a large portion of their relatively affluent expat population has already achieved happiness in another, competing country.

_{Keep in mind that this will have absolutely zero impact on those coming here for SteemFest - also it is not my objective to bad-mouth this country... i love it here. But i call a spade a spade}