Compulsory health insurance for foreigners – will it affect you?
PHOTO: Over 50 and reading about compulsory health insurance? Not sure which way to turn?
Foreigners aged over 50 applying for a particular visa type now need mandatory health insurance.
The new requirements, which were approved by Cabinet in April and announced by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), says that people applying or renewing (or rather re-applying for) a Non-Immigrant Visa O-A now need to have health insurance from either a Thai insurance company or from a policy bought overseas.
The requirement for mandatory health insurance appears to only affect those applying for a Non-Immigrant Visa OA. According to the announcement on the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) website, it does not affect anyone who stays in Thailand on an extension of stay based on retirement, which is often incorrectly referred to as a ‘retirement visa’. Extensions of stay are not visas. Most retirees who stay in Thailand do so on an ‘extension of stay based on retirement’.
A Non-Immigrant Visa OA can only be applied for at Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate overseas. Anyone who has a Non-Immigrant Visa OA typically applies for this at the Thai Embassy or Consulate in their home country.
An extension of stay based on retirement can only be obtained at an immigration office within Thailand. It’s the extension of stay based on retirement which have recently been the subject of the much publicised change in the financial requirements which need to be met in order to be granted the extension.
Read more about the details, as interpreted by ThaiVisa, HERE.
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