Effective May 1, prospective arrivals will require a simplified online registration with Thailand Pass together with proof of vaccination and of minimum Covid insurance of ten thousand US dollars. However, no local or international insurance company has yet altered its premium to cope with the reduction from US$20,000. And the reality of the cover can be very confusing.
Policies for one month cost anywhere from around 650 baht to 12,000 baht and details vary enormously. Some include “deductibles” which are a self-pay percentage of the potential cost liability, some don’t cover unless you have had a recent RT-PCR test, others deny cover if you are “asymptomatic” and still others have age restrictions. “It’s a minefield”, says Greg Watkins who heads up a consortium of UK travel agents.
Critics say that that many of the cheaper policies don’t offer realistic Covid cover and are effectively an extra entry fee which everyone must pay. Although the official Thai position is that entrants must have cover for the totality of their stay, most visitors require only 30 days because extensions and renewals at immigration offices are exempt from insurance requirement. However, this flexibility may not extend to one year retirees with an O/A visa and a couple of rarely used alternatives (Special Tourist Visa and 10-year O/X).
The Tourism Council of Thailand says that the Thailand Pass scheme and its insurance requirement should be scrapped in order to boost tourist arrivals. Vice-president Vichit Prakobgosol claims that the pre-departure registration hassles are deterring group travel and sorely inconveniencing short-term visitors staying in Thailand only for a few days. He pointed out that neighboring countries, especially Malaysia, provided bona fide tourists but were still subject to Thailand Pass unless they were guest workers, subject to separate regulations.
ThaiVisaCentre says it’s still waiting for a new set of pricing to be released by major insurers while maintaining a useful general price comparison tool at https://AQ.in.th/INSURANCE Separately, immigration authorities are stressing that the registration with Thailand Pass is required for land travellers as well as those arriving by air. Although most land border posts remain closed to tourists, there are limited exceptions for travellers to Thailand from Malaysia and Laos. Cambodian-Thai talks on border reopenings are said to be reaching agreement.
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