Many farangs have some sort of health insurance but certainly not all. Many either can't or don't want to afford it. The reality is - sooner or later you will need it. When you do there is a whopping difference if you're insured with some program or on your own. If the latter you can end up paying 10x as much for the same procedure/service. When you need it you're not in the best of positions to shop around either - you might have had an accident or a stoke or some other emergency that precludes a lot of time shopping.

I was wondering about the feasability of us collectively banding together to negotiate a rate with various hospitals and clinics. What we all have in common is that we're foreigners and, by being farangs, are going to get the shaft when it comes to medical care. I'm no insurance expert but it seems like with the thousands of expats from all over the world we should be able to negotiate a rate that is dramatically lower than what we will receive without some sort of insurance coverage.

Any insurance experts out there? Probably the best approach would be to a major insurer and see if they would offer rates to farangs. Call them "Git" rates! Does anyone think this has merit? I know many younger farangs may have some sort of coverage but my the time you hit 60 it becomes very hard to find ANY coverage - even for Thais. If we could pull this off we should be able to get everyone that wants to be insured, covered. All ideas are welcome

Serendipity2