Health Insurance in Thailand for Foreigners: Costs and Rules

Most foreigners in Thailand need no health insurance for their visa: only the O-A retirement visa, with at least US$100,000 or ฿3,000,000 of cover, the ten-year O-X and the Long-Term Resident visa require it, and the LTR also accepts Thai Social Security or a US$100,000 deposit instead. Most still want it, because Thailand's free public scheme is for Thai citizens and Social Security covers only people employed here. A private hospital room in Chiang Mai costs ฿1,500 to ฿30,000 a day before any treatment. On Thai insurers' own tables, ฿3.5 million of cover costs ฿9,600 a year at 30 with a ฿1 million deductible and ฿37,930 with none: the deductible moves the price more than age does.

Does your visa require it?#

Three visas do. The O-A retirement visa needs at least US$100,000 or ฿3,000,000 of cover for the whole stay, at the embassy and at every yearly extension. The ten-year O-X needs a Thai policy for each family member. The Long-Term Resident visa needs US$50,000 of cover, or Thai Social Security, or a deposit. The DTV, the Non-O retirement route, Thailand Privilege, work, study and family visas ask for none.

In the Foreign Ministry's 78-page visa list of 31 August 2026, the word insurance appears only for the O-A, the O-X and two working-holiday visas. For most long stays, insurance is your decision, not the immigration office's. That also leaves a way to stay for a retiree whom insurers refuse: the Non-O route and its yearly extension carry no insurance condition.

Thailand retirement visa

The three routes from age 50, the ฿800,000 money test, fees by embassy and the yearly extension in Chiang Mai.

Read the retirement visa guide

Thai policy, international plan or nomad plan#

A Thai policy comes from an insurer licensed by Thailand's insurance regulator, the Office of Insurance Commission (OIC): it is sold in baht, covers treatment in Thailand and follows the regulator's standard wording. An international plan comes from an insurer regulated abroad, such as Cigna Global in Guernsey: dollars, worldwide or regional cover, prices by quote. A nomad plan is sold to people living abroad, and its own terms decide whether it still covers you once Thailand is home.

Three brand names mislead. Cigna's Thai business has belonged to Chubb since 1 July 2022, so "Cigna" on a Thai hospital's list most likely means that former Thai book, not Cigna Global. Aetna Health Thailand's policies passed to Allianz Ayudhya. AXA sells two different things: AXA Insurance's Thai EasyCare Visa plan and AXA's international plans. Bupa Global sells nothing online to Thailand residents; its site sends them to a phone line in the UK.

Nomad plans: HanseMerkur, Genki and SafetyWing#

HanseMerkur, Genki and SafetyWing sell health cover for long stays abroad, from Germany, Liechtenstein and Puerto Rico. None of them states that it meets the O-A rule or signs Thailand's Foreign Insurance Certificate: not stated, so ask the insurer before you apply for that visa. Each suits a different reader, and one of them cannot be bought once you live here.

HanseMerkur's long-stay plans, RK 365 for up to a year and RKL for up to five years, can only be bought with a main residence registered in Germany, before you leave Germany; someone already living in Chiang Mai cannot buy them, and the five-year plan takes people up to 74. They pay covered costs in full with no stated overall limit, with a €100 deductible a year on the five-year plan, but in hospital only the general ward, a shared room without private-doctor extras, in both the Basic and the Profi tariff, and they exclude known pre-existing conditions. Cover is for a temporary absence from the German home, and the contract ends when the trip ends: if you deregister from Germany, check with HanseMerkur first whether your cover continues. On a contract of a year or more, up to six weeks a year back in Germany are covered.

Genki, a German company, now sells Genki Traveler and Genki Native, both insured by Squarelife Insurance of Liechtenstein; its older Explorer and Resident plans are no longer sold. Native has no maximum length and covers chronic conditions, with €1 million (Basic) or €3.5 million (Premium) a year, but you must join by 55 and pass the insurer's health questions. Traveler takes anyone up to 69, for one year that cannot be extended, with €1 million of cover and no cover for prior conditions. Genki publishes one price for each: Native Basic €189 a month at 20 to 24 without a deductible, and Traveler €52.50 a month at 24.

SafetyWing sells Essential and Complete, carried by insurers in Puerto Rico. Essential gives no cover in your home country, which its terms define as where you principally reside and receive mail, beyond short visits; on our reading of that definition, once Chiang Mai is your main home, Essential no longer fits. It pays up to US$250,000 a period and leaves out cancer, maternity and pre-existing conditions. Complete covers you in your country of residence, with US$1.5 million a year, a private room and US$5,000 a year for out-patient care, and must be bought between 18 and 64.

What it costs at 30, 45, 60 and 70#

On the insurers' own tables, ฿3.5 million of cover costs ฿9,600 a year at 30 with a ฿1 million deductible and ฿37,930 with none. From 60 to 70, premiums rise by a quarter on some plans and almost double on others. Each figure below is the insurer's own yearly premium for its own age band, with the plan's cover and deductible; the first table holds the plans a 30- or 45-year-old can buy.

Navakij sells its O-A plans only to O-A applicants, who must be 50 or older, and their spouse or children; the long-stay plans sold under the LUMA name are Navakij's. Falcon's O-A plan starts at ฿5,080 a year at 50–59 for its Plan 6, and Thaivivat sells from 50 on a 2019 table. Pacific Cross, AXA, Muang Thai Life, Allianz Ayudhya and AIA publish no prices, and no international insurer publishes a price for Thailand: they all quote.

Age decides who will sell to you at all, and each insurer sets its own limits:

• Thai Health takes no new customer over 70, and Falcon's Plans 1 to 3 close at 70.
• Navakij takes O-A applicants to 75 and stops renewing at 80; Bangkok Insurance takes new customers to 75; Pacific Cross says 75 on one page and 80 in its questions.
• Chubb and Dhipaya take new customers to 80, and AXA to 79: its own graphic says 78 years and 11 months.
• Cigna Global, an international insurer, states no upper age limit.
• Chubb's basic long-stay plan keeps the right not to renew a person, with 30 days' notice.

So buy before 70 and do not let the policy lapse. A lapsed Thai policy can be reinstated within 90 days without restarting its waiting periods; a new policy after that starts them, and the pre-existing-condition rule, from the beginning.

The rules in every Thai policy#

Since 2021 every Thai health policy follows the OIC's New Health Standard: one list of benefits, one rule for pre-existing conditions, waiting periods of 30 and 120 days, and renewal guaranteed without a health check to an age the insurer sets, at least 69. New policies since 20 March 2025 can also add a copayment at renewal after frequent small claims.

• Pre-existing conditions are excluded unless you declared them and the insurer accepted them without an exclusion, or the condition showed no symptoms and was not examined, treated or discussed with a doctor in the five years before the policy first started.
• Illness is covered after 30 days. Tumours, cysts and cancers, haemorrhoids, hernias, pterygium and cataract, tonsil or adenoid removal, stones, varicose veins and endometriosis wait 120 days. Accidents wait for nothing.
• Renewal can be refused only for a false declaration, claims without medical need, or hospital-cash claims across insurers above your real income, and only with 30 days' written notice.
• The premium may change with your age and occupation class, rising medical costs, the insurer's claims, or your own claims, within rates the regulator has approved, with 30 days' notice.
• A life insurer's policy can be cancelled within 15 days, or 30 days if bought by phone; a general insurer's policy sold by phone has at least 30 days with a full refund. No official figure covers a general insurer's health policy bought online or in person, so ask before you pay.

The 2025 copayment#

For new health policies starting on or after 20 March 2025, the life insurers' rule is this: 3 or more claims in a policy year for simple illnesses, adding up to at least 200% of the premium, mean you pay 30% of every treatment cost the next year; 3 or more claims for other illness, at least 400% of the premium, also mean 30%; both together mean 50%. The copayment lifts once claims fall. The nine simple illnesses are upper respiratory infection, influenza, diarrhoea, dizziness, fever of unknown cause, headache, muscle inflammation, allergy, and gastritis or acid reflux.

Serious illness and major surgery never count, the insurer must state the condition from the first day and cannot add it later, and policies bought before 20 March 2025 and renewed on time are not affected. General insurers' standard wording works differently, a copayment of up to 30% with a premium cut of up to 30%, and the regulator's and the life insurers' descriptions differ in detail, so read your own policy's clause. It is the "clinic for every cold" pattern that the rule catches.

Insurance for the O-A visa#

The O-A needs health insurance, including COVID-19 cover, of at least US$100,000 or ฿3,000,000 for the whole stay, at the embassy and again at every yearly extension in Thailand. Each extension lasts as long as the policy, at most a year, so a policy shorter than twelve months shortens the stay.

1. A Thai policy is bought online through the insurers' association's long-stay site, longstay.tgia.org, which lists about 14 insurers; immigration can check it there.
2. A foreign policy needs the Foreign Insurance Certificate, the Thai health ministry's form, completed, signed and stamped by your insurer. For an extension in Thailand, the order adds certification by your country's embassy in Thailand, or a notarised signature authenticated by your own foreign ministry.
3. If insurers refuse you, wholly or in part, ฿3,000,000 held in a Thai bank for at least two months before you apply counts instead, or a deposit and partial cover that add up to it, with the insurer's refusal letter. Money you show for the ฿800,000 test cannot count twice.

No official text sets an out-patient minimum or says how a deductible counts: the ฿3,000,000 is a total per policy year, and every plan in the tables above is sold for the O-A on the association's list. An O-A holder's spouse who does not qualify alone receives a Non-O, which needs no insurance.

The O-X asks for a Thai policy only, with ฿40,000 out-patient and ฿400,000 in-patient cover a year for each family member at most embassies, held throughout the stay or the visa is withdrawn; some embassies ask more, so follow yours. The Long-Term Resident visa asks for US$50,000 of cover for treatment in Thailand with at least 10 months left, or Thai Social Security, or US$100,000 held for 12 months; each dependant needs a US$50,000 policy, Thai Social Security or US$25,000 more on deposit, and any insurer may issue the policy.

Without insurance: the public routes and the hospital bill#

Thailand's free public scheme, the gold card, is for Thai nationals only, and marriage to a Thai does not change that. The one public scheme that covers foreigners is Social Security, and only for people employed here: 5% of wages, at most ฿875 a month in 2026, for free care at one registered hospital. Everyone else pays the hospital.

• Section 33 covers every legally employed worker aged 15 to 60, with no nationality condition. Care starts after 3 months of contributions within 15 months; a foreign member shows the Social Security card and passport. The wage ceiling rose to ฿17,500 on 1 January 2026.
• Section 39 keeps a former employee covered for ฿432 a month, if they paid for at least 12 months and left the job no more than 6 months before; no official page says whether a passport holder is accepted.
• Section 40 is closed to passport holders: it is for Thai nationals and holders of certain Thai-issued ID cards for non-Thais.
• Free emergency care for the first 72 hours reaches foreigners only if they have Social Security rights.
• The Ministry of Public Health sells a health card to non-Thais, mainly to migrant workers; no current notice gives its 2026 price or says a retiree may buy it, so ask Nakornping Hospital before you count on it.

Social Security's 2025 list names eight Chiang Mai hospitals: Nakornping, Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai and San Pa Tong (public), and Chiang Mai Klaimor, Theppanya, Rajavej, Lanna and Lanna 3 (private). Sriphat, the private wing of the university hospital, does not accept Social Security.

What Chiang Mai hospitals charge#

Six private hospitals publish dated room rates for patients who pay themselves. They are per day, before medicines, tests, surgery and specialists. No Chiang Mai hospital publishes a doctor's consultation fee.

• Childbirth: Rajavej ฿22,000 for a normal delivery and ฿35,000 for a Caesarean, to 31 December 2026; Lanna ฿25,000 and ฿40,000 for the mother, from 1 January 2025; Chiang Mai Ram ฿71,000 for a Caesarean, or ฿120,000 in a premier suite, doctors included, for 2026.
• Check-ups run from ฿1,290 at Rajavej to ฿21,900 at Sriphat; Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai's 16-item programme is ฿6,900.
• Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai publishes the 44 insurers and assistance companies it has contracts with, among them AIA, April International, Allianz Worldwide Care, AXA, Chubb Samaggi, Muang Thai Life, Navakij, Pacific Cross and Thai Health; Bupa is not on it.
• Sriphat's Foreign Center lists 61 international insurers, among them Bupa Global and Aetna International, and gives out-patient and in-patient credit once your insurer's guarantee letter arrives. Chiang Mai Ram publishes a list of 71 insurance and assistance partners.

Unpaid bills are why hospitals ask. On 26 October 2026 the Public Health Minister said 32 regional hospitals billed foreigners ฿16,957 million in fiscal 2024 and collected ฿9,935 million, a figure that includes border and migrant patients.

Hospitals in Chiang Mai for foreigners

The private and university hospitals, where they are, their foreign-patient desks and their published room rates.

Read the hospitals guide

Travel insurance is not health insurance#

Travel insurance covers trips away from a home country elsewhere, and no Thai long-stay rule accepts it: every rule that asks for cover, the O-A's first among them, asks for health insurance for the whole stay in Thailand. Once you live in Chiang Mai, a policy built around another home may not treat Thailand as abroad: see the nomad plans above.

Thailand's own free tourist cover, which paid up to ฿500,000 of accident medical costs, ended on 31 December 2024. A tourist entry fee of ฿450 per entry, air arrivals first, is proposed and would fund visitors' insurance; it still needs a public consultation, the Cabinet and the Royal Gazette, so the earliest start is about April 2027. It would not cover residents or meet any visa rule.

Destination Thailand Visa (DTV)

Who qualifies, the ฿500,000 proof, applying from abroad, the 180-day stays and tax for remote workers.

Read the DTV guide

Checking an insurer, and the tax deduction#

Ask an agent or broker for their OIC licence number and check it on the regulator's e-service, or call the OIC on 1186. A Thai tax filer can deduct up to ฿25,000 a year of their own health premiums, within ฿100,000 together with life premiums, but only for a policy from an insurer carrying on business in Thailand.

Tell the insurer you want the deduction, because the insurer reports the premium to the Revenue Department. Parents' health premiums add up to ฿15,000, but only for parents with a Thai civil-registration ID number and income of no more than ฿30,000 a year. You are a Thai tax resident after 180 days in a tax year; an international plan does not qualify. The 13 general insurers on the long-stay list all appear on the Thai General Insurance Association's 2026 member list.

Retire in Chiang Mai

Areas, costs, health care and the visa routes for retirees, side by side.

Read the retirement guide