Transcript of the above video:

I made a video contemporaneously with this one where we discussed the same article I'm going to get into here with you now. I brought up the fact that yeah there is a difference and has been up to this point, between O-A and O Retirement Visas, okay? And as we discussed in the prior video they were talking about the fact, and I think they meant retroactively, that anybody that wanted to be in Thailand over 50 for a long stay, had to show either health insurance coverage or 3 million Baht in a Thai Bank Account in order to meet the health insurance requirement. But as I said in that video, that is talking about O-A. We were not talking about O Retirement Visas when we were talking about that or at least we haven't in the past. 

To be clear, Immigration issues are in a state of flux at the moment. I made another video contemporaneously with this one where I discuss that in a little bit more detail, but long story short, things are kind of moving a little fast here. I'm hesitant to conclude anything with certainty right now which is the reason I am making this video. And to be clear, I'm not saying that there is going to be an insurance requirement for O retirees, but that said let's dig into this article.

Quoting directly from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: New Visa promotions, retiree insurance reduced. Quoting directly: "Visitors aged 50 years or more who want long stay visas are currently required to have a health insurance coverage worth 3 million Baht." Again as I said earlier, that pertains to the O-A Retirement Visa generally issued abroad and extended in country. That type of Visa has an insurance requirement. As discussed in prior videos, O Retirement Visas, not O-A, O Retirement Visas, do not presently have an insurance requirement to the best of my knowledge; do not at this time of this video have that requirement. That said, this caught my eye, quoting further: "Under the Cabinet's resolution on Tuesday, each, (each) long stay visa applicant in this age group is required to have health cover of only 440,000 baht - 400,000 Baht for inpatient treatment and 40,000 for outpatient cover."

We have seen the press be, not intentionally inaccurate, but inaccurate in the past regarding the finer points of Thai Immigration. For the moment everybody take a deep breath, I think they are simply talking about reducing the insurance requirements for O-A retirees; I think that is what they are talking about in this article. That said, "each long stay" - again this is a new Cabinet resolution so I can't be entirely certain on what exactly they are talking about here until we see promulgated rules associated therewith. That said, to quote directly again and let's put this on screen again, "each long stay visa application in this age group," they didn't stipulate a Visa category. Now again I don't know if that's perhaps glossing over a finer point or if that is the fine point which is ‘now O and O-A are both looking at insurance requirements’. Let me be clear, I don't know the answer to this question, okay, and I don't want people to freak out because first of all when these things come down the pike, it takes time for them to be formalized. So for example we may have to see an interval of time before this comes into effect and we don't even know if it pertains to both the O and the O-A.

That stated I will be keeping people updated on this channel and I reiterate, please people, please, I know this stuff really causes consternation for retirees. That's not my purpose in making these videos at all. Please remain calm because at the end of the day, when we take a big deep breath, oftentimes this stuff kind of looks like a mountain and then turns out to be more of a molehill. But that said, again I will be keeping people updated on this channel as the situation evolves.