Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Insurance in the context of Retirement Visas for Thailand, especially for older retirees. This has really been a source of a lot of consternation, a lot of concern on the part of our older retiree expat community here in Thailand because there have been announcements that essentially they are broadening the requirements associated with so-called COVID insurance, I am calling it broad-based insurance. Going back, we had two different kinds; there was the insurance associated with O-A visas which 400,000 Baht inpatient, 40,000 Baht outpatient. They are now sort of mixing this and putting it all in a 3 million Baht policy cover that is then going to be required at the latest in August of next year. That is what we are seeing thus far. Now this is in a bit of a state of flux so I may update on this channel as the situation changes. Long story short, it is of concern to a lot of folks especially those that are in O Retirement Visa status because what happens if they leave and come back in? This has caused some concern.

A recent article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, provided some insight into this. This is one excerpt, I urge those who are watching this video to go check out that article. The article is titled: Elderly Foreigners are Still Welcome in Thailand. Quoting directly: "According to the latest information by Thai Embassies around the world, foreigners up to the age of 99 can still obtain reasonably priced insurance cover required by the Thailand Pass procedures which began today.” To be clear, the Thailand Pass is replacing or has replaced the Certificate of Entry which was required going back to March of 2020 up to now. It was promulgated as a result of the Emergency Decree in response to the pandemic. Now part of the Certificate of Entry requirement was an insurance policy and this was across the board; it was COVID insurance. Now that we are transitioned into this Thailand Pass, it also has this insurance requirement. 

Now an O Retirement Visa in Thailand does not require insurance in and of itself but to get into Thailand presently, so for those who leave and want to come back, you do have to deal with what was the Certificate of Entry, what is now the Thailand Pass which does require insurance so this is a concern for folks that want to come back and forth. Quoting further: "The Washington DC Embassy site confirms that the US $50,000 medical insurance required is obtainable from the Thai General Insurance Association." So there are still, and we have seen this with clients that we have been processing through, there are still options out there but I do know this is causing a lot of concern to folks. Bear in mind we are not going to see this fully implemented until it looks to me like the latter half of 2022 so there is time and credit where credit is due, we have seen some of these policies come down the pike rather quickly in the past to the point that people had a lot of critique, were rather critical of the way that the Government just sort of imposed these rules. In this case they have provided a lot of lead time so folks can kind of acclimate themselves to dealing with this.

But something to keep in mind is yeah especially for those who want to come and go, at least while this Thailand Pass system is still in force, insurance is probably going to be effectively required for all of those retirees notwithstanding the fact that their underlying visa may not require it.