Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing possible insurance requirements for entering the Philippines. I have been doing a number of videos on some countries here regionally in Southeast Asia as things are opening up more and more. Thailand has really opened up in the past roughly two weeks where we have seen basically the insurance requirement thrown out; we have seen most, if not all the testing requirements thrown out  especially for vaccinated travellers and the requirements even for unvaccinated are quite low compared to what they were just going back even a couple months ago. We have also seen the Thailand Pass has been cast aside; we no longer have to deal with that for people who want to come into Thailand. So all good news across the board. But, knowing there are a lot of folks that come out to this region of the world and like to kind of bounce around to different countries, I decided to do a few videos about the requirements associated with those different countries.

I got you thinking about this after reading a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Regional roundup of compulsory insurance regulations for July entry. Then under the subheading: Philippines: There is no longer an automatic insistence on Medical cover for entry as the former requirement of US$35,000 "to include COVID" for the duration of the day vanished from Government websites last May. However, if you are unvaccinated or in a semi-state, you will still need to purchase in advance a US$35,000 policy from "a reputable insurance provider". Most current visitors to the Philippines are returning Filipinos or long stay expats rather than tourists". We are seeing kind of an influx of inbound retirees and tourists here to Thailand. I don't know exactly what the demography is over there in the Philippines.

But yeah long story short, it's looking like things are opening up in this region, Philippines no exception. Thailand, to its credit I really don't think Thailand gets enough credit for this, is during the full shutdown when many other countries including the Philippines weren't letting in anybody, Thailand did let people in. It was possible to get here. It was cumbersome; it could be difficult at times; then we had the Sandbox program which seemed to kind of streamline things. But long story short, yeah it was not the easiest thing in the world to get into Thailand some time ago but Thailand stayed open basically. We went into hard lockdown, what would it have been? April, May of 2020 but after that it started to reopen and then it did become possible to get into Thailand when it was not possible to get into other places. Now that is changing. Certainly we can't look back at the past, we just need to keep moving forward but it is noteworthy and the thing to think about is yes, it's now possible to get into Thailand. Pretty much everybody I can think of isn't going to need insurance which is a little bit different in the Philippines and then also there may be some testing requirements for the unvaccinated here in Thailand and there is no Thailand Pass. 

So long story short, Thailand has improved; it is possible to get into Thailand. The admission requirements have been drastically lowered. It seems to be the case in the Philippines as well. We will certainly keep people updated on the regional state of affairs as the situation evolves.