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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Retirees in Thailand specifically Retirement Visas. Insurance has been a major topic on the lips of many expats over the past few days most notably because there are new insurance guidelines coming online in October of 2022 here, and we are presently seeing the regulations being rolled out. I would like to take this moment as a side note to just kind of tip the hat to Thai Immigration. In the past we have seen Thai Immigration implement rules like overnight and it has caused a lot of consternation; has caused a lot of frustration and concern among the Expat community especially the retiree community. These are folks that are looking to make a permanent home here in Thailand for their retirement and when things just change on a dime, it really freaks people out. I completely understand that so I would like to just briefly say, credit where credit to due. Thai Immigration is rolling this out very gradually and they are giving folks plenty of time to understand what this is going to be looking like in the fourth quarter of 2022 because this is not set to come online until October of this year. 

A recent article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Long-stay retirees in Thailand to be allowed to self-insure. Quoting directly: "For the first time in Thai Immigration history, applicants for the O-A Visa or extension who are unable to obtain comprehensive medical insurance because of old age, infirmity and pre-existing conditions will be able to self-insure." So we have discussed that in other videos. That is certainly overall a benefit but this excerpt in here and I urge folks, go check out the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Long-stay retirees and Thailand to be allowed to self-insure. We urge folks go check that out. There is tons of information in this article. It is very well written. This little excerpt I thought was really noteworthy. Quoting directly: "This could benefit for example retirees from the US Military who are often given worldwide health cover." Yeah, TRICARE which is a pretty substantial medical benefit for veterans of the US Armed Forces, that can be a really substantial benefit to Americans. There is no other way of putting it but it has been an issue. A lot of folks have asked me as we have been dealing with all this insurance kind of madness associated with all these different rules coming down the pike and what to deal with; what is going to be allowed; what is not going to be allowed and the point is it looks like and again we are probably not going to know how the rubber hits the road on this until the 4th quarter of this year but it looks like TRICARE in the future could be a possibility as proof of medical coverage which hasn't been possible up to this point, again a little bit of a tip of the hat to Immigration. When they first promulgated these rules I believe in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Health, they basically came out and said look 400,000 Baht inpatient coverage, 40,000 Baht outpatient coverage, and then it kind of became this thing where you really were stuck with a limited set of options regarding insurance. It looks like they are trying to go more broad and create a framework for adjudicating other types of insurance. I do think there are telltale signs to be hopeful that TRICARE will be an available option for Retirees to prove up insurance coverage after the fourth quarter of 2022.