Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing insurance requirements associated with Visas specifically Retirement Visas here in Thailand. This has been a topic which has been on the lips of many and unfortunately this topic, the narrative of this got off on the wrong foot because people started talking about it and a lot of the published material that first came out on this most recent iteration of the insurance issue, it really was not overly accurate. At first people said "Oh does everyone need COVID-19 insurance? Anyone that is in Non-immigrant Visa status?" That seemed to be the case from first glance and then No, that turned out not to be the case. It appears to be pertaining exclusively to Retirement Visas.

Now we have done a number of videos on this and as of now, it does not appear that insurance is required, at least for now of any kind, required for O retirees, those who are in O Retirement Visa status. But O-A Retirement Visas, it does presently seem that those folks are going to be required to have COVID-19 Insurance in perpetuity after they arrive in Thailand as well as upon arrival; you need to get insurance in order to get an O-A Visa.

Now, that brings up another thing. They also brought up when they were talking about this, they brought up the notion that other options may be available. There may be other evidence that can be used to meet the insurance requirements. It is yet to be fully parsed out exactly whether they meant only COVID or all Insurance requirements but that other documentation and overseas insurance policies may possibly be used as evidence to meet the Insurance requirement which brought up a question.

This was actually emailed to me with all the analysis about the possibility of using other evidence for insurance but it all boiled down to this one question, quoting directly: "Could this potentially be an avenue for TRICARE to be accepted as insurance coverage for retired US military people?" An interesting point and possibly and in fact I have very little doubt that folks that are in both the Ministry Public Health and the Immigration Bureau aren't unaware of TRICARE. They probably are very well aware that that is out there. It is used by a lot of folks who are veterans that are residing here in Thailand. It has been a little problematic for usage as insurance coverage because it reimburses, it doesn't automatically pay out. So the person who has TRICARE uses it; they go to a hospital here in Thailand, they basically pay for their coverage and then TRICARE reimburses them; that is my understanding of how it works and I am being very general there. So that has always been a bit of a sticky wicket with respect to the insurance requirement associated with Retirement Visas.

That stated yeah maybe in these upcoming rule changes and to be clear these rule changes have yet to be fully firmed up; we have yet to see what they actually look like in detail, so yeah it is possible maybe TRICARE could be allowed as a way of meeting the insurance requirement for an O-A Retirement Visa moving forward.