Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Retirement Visas yet again. We are also discussing something that appears to be much on the lips of the expats here in Thailand especially the retirees which is the notion of Compulsory Medical Insurance associated with Thai Retirement Visas. For some background for first time viewers, long time audience members here probably know, they might even think I am a broken record on this video, but long story short, O Retirement Visas presently do not require mandatory insurance; O-A Retirement Visas do and the requirement of insurance can be a rather high threshold. Even if you take the exemption in the O-A category to the insurance requirement, it does require a proof of 3 million baht in cash to cover medical expenses. So again, this Compulsory Medical coverage can have a pretty major impact on retirees here in Thailand. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article on the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: My take on Pattaya September 2023: Walking Street so quiet. Under sub-headline: Immigration woes misguided, quoting directly and I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail. There is a lot of good information there. Quoting directly: "There seems to be a lot of panic amongst Pattaya expats that Compulsory Medical Insurance is about to hit all Retirement Visa holders rather than just those with O/A." (That is the O-A Retirement Visa) Quoting further: "I've been asking around but I don't get the impression anything like that is brewing. It's true that Big Joke," (that is Surachate "Big Joke" Hakparn), quoting further: "a Deputy National Police Chief, did say weeks ago that annual extensions of stay were too easy to obtain, but he's a very busy guy with many public statements to his credit." Point taken there. I think again as we discussed at the time that we made the videos on that topic, when “Big Joke” talks about Thai Immigration I am going to listen. He is a former head of Thai Immigration, he is now the Deputy National Police Chief. He even said himself he was looking to promulgate legislation and bring it before the Parliament to change the rules regarding Thai Immigration. Now again as noted in this article, whether or not any of this comes to pass remains to be seen.

As I have discussed in other videos, I personally think that on a long-term basis if major changes do occur to the Thai Retirement Visa, some form of "grandfathering" is likely to be implemented meaning that folks that were already in the system are likely to be able to remain in the system under prior terms which is what occurred in the ‘90s when things changed with regard to the Retirement Visa at that time. So I think something similar is likely to happen, if we see major changes forthcoming in the future. Again, that is a level of speculation on my part, but things remain to be seen and we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.