Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking question 'are all Thai Retirement Visa holders supposed to have some kind of health insurance?'  Let me just get into it here.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: New Visa promotions, retiree insurance reduced. Then there was just this one liner, I urge those who are watching the video, go check out the article in detail. This one line though caught my attention, quote: "Visitors aged 50 years or more who want long-stay visas are currently required to have health insurance coverage worth 3 million Baht." Now I think what they are talking about there is the standard O-A or O Retirement Visa, but as we have discussed in other videos, up to now at least and again I have done another video recently talking about the fact that Visa Regulations, all matters pertaining to Thai Immigration seem to be in kind of a state of flux at the moment. We have got all kinds of things going on with expansion of the Visa Exemption Program, expansion of the Visa-on-Arrival Program here in Thailand. We are also seeing new things like the Destination Thailand Visa which has been introduced; I don't know how useful that's going to be for many people. But long story short there are a number of options now available to folks who are looking to come to Thailand to be tourists. I'm not going to say ‘be here long term’ because that really falls under the Non-immigrant Visa categories but there are a lot of options available for folks who want to stay longer than just you know the old standard 30 days or a few weeks here in Thailand. 

Another thing to bear in mind with respect to this video. I think they are conflating two things in that line. I think they are talking about O-A Visa holders have up to this point been required to have health insurance coverage for the 3 million Baht as we have discussed in prior videos. It does not appear or it has not been the case that O Retirement Visa holders or those extending O Retirement Visas in Thailand need to deal with those kind of insurance requirements. That said, I'm making another video contemporaneously with this one where I explore that issue in a little bit more detail. Those who are interested in that, stay tuned because you will be able to see further analysis into whether or not I think it's possible down the line we might actually see the Insurance requirement associated with all types of Retirement Visa here in the Kingdom of Thailand.