Transcript of the above video: 

Some of the sort of more I would call them, in these days they are becoming more and more in use but, the Elite Visa applies to a narrow subset of people; the Long-term Resident Visa, so-called - the reason that's in quotation marks in the title is you do have to put "resident" in quotation marks with the LTR - they continuously call it a Resident Visa, it does not confer Lawful Permanent Residence in Thailand; it is basically like a long Tourist Visa. But that said, there are questions regarding insurance requirements associated with these and at first glance people will say "oh there are not any requirements" and then you look a little deeper and there actually are. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand's medical insurance rules for foreigners are a muddle. I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail, I'm going to quote a small excerpt. Quoting directly: "The 5 - 20 years Elite or Privilege Visa" yeah, they were calling it Thailand Elite Visa for the longest time and then like last year they said "well we're changing it, we're calling it Thailand Privilege now, although that hasn't really stuck. I don't even understand why they changed the name. The company that facilitates the membership program that then can put people into the system with Immigration to ultimately get the visa, is called Thailand Privilege but the Visa was always called Thailand Elite; I don't know why all the confusion, but whatever. Quoting again: "The 5 - 20 years Elite or Privilege Visa does not need Hospital cover.." So let's be clear, Elite Visas do not require Insurance. Quoting further: "..but the 10 year Long-term Residency.." let's be clear, it's not a 10 year Visa exactly. It's 5 years, then you get audited. That's what I've read, and I've done the videos on this citing the sources, then you get audited at the 5-year mark and if you clear the audit, then you can get your 5 years for the next 5 years. That's how I understand it, and by audit, I mean a tax audit, that's my understanding. Quoting further: ".. but the 10-year long-term residency requires over US$50,000 or a Thai Bank account showing US$100,000 bond for an extended period." Yeah, at the end of the day, the insurance requirements associated with the LTR are a little bit cumbersome to say the least. They are somewhat substantial, and they don't apply to Elite. Now again Elite you buy in, so you pay the money; LTR you prove up you have the resources, it's a little bit different. 

There's a lot of "muddle" is the right word, as noted in the title of that Pattaya Mail article which I again urge people to read. Yeah, it is very opaque right now. In fact, I am a little upset that a lot of folks, especially folks that have only recently come into Government have of sort of run in with all their pie in the sky ideas about how Immigration should work and have really muddied up the waters with regard to how it will operate. That being said, we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.