Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing "self-insurance" if you will associated with Retirement Visas here in Thailand. For those who are unaware, there has been a lot of talk recently about insurance again in the context of the Retirement Visa most notably a lot of consternation was caused when a report came out that everyone was going to be required, at least everyone in Non-Immigrant Visa status, was going to be required to obtain insurance to cover them for possible COVID-19 infection. It turned out that that was not the case but it does appear that a lot of the Retirement Visa holder community is going to be required to get some kind of COVID insurance. 

Now the interesting thing on this is while this may have created some more onerous requirements for some people, it actually may have created for lack of a better term, a "back door" option for folks, especially older folks who may not be able to meet the insurance requirement. To put a finer point on it, a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Initial Confusion Over Virus Insurance for Retirees in Thailand Clears a Bit. There is a lot of information in this article. I urge those who are watching this video to read that article. To quote directly: "It is also true that Thailand's advanced elderly expats between the ages of 75 and 100 often can’t obtain any kind of insurance in Thailand especially if they have pre-existing conditions but private Thai hospitals confirm that they are often wealthy individuals who have no choice anyway but to self-insure. Thus it is very likely that self-insurance will become a clear option for the first time and that extra wads of cash in the bank or other proofs of financial soundness will do the trick. As regards how much and in what form only time will show." Interesting insight. I think that is really useful. Again, go check out the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com. 

What they are talking about specifically here though is, and we have discussed this in other videos on this channel, one option associated with this insurance that they seem to be opening up in these proposed rules is for someone to be able to show a certain amount of money in a bank account in order to offset the need for insurance. Now how exactly this looks remains to be seen. It has been discussed and to be clear we haven't actually seen these rules promulgated. There have been no regulations that have actually been registered, gone through the Royal Gazette or set in stone if you will, so as of now we don't know exactly what that kind of scheme would look like with respect to using funds in an account to offset the need for insurance but we will certainly update you on this channel as the situation evolves.