Company cancels Covid insurance policies

[reader]

From Bangkok Post

Syn Mun Kong Insurance on Friday announced it was cancelling its Covid-19 insurance policies with customers, saying the rapidly deteriorating situation made the risk unmanageable.

In a message on its Facebook page, the SET-listed insurance firm said Covid 2-1 insurance policies for all clients would be terminated 30 days after they receive a letter from the company officially notifying them of the change.

The company would return any insurance premium insurers paid in the 15 days after the policy being cancelled, but would not give them back the money they had paid before the decision to terminate the product, the announcement said.

The Syn Mun Kong announcement said the decision to cancel the insurance was due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in Thailand. The number of new infections continued to surge and put pressure on the public health system.

The crisis made it impossible for the company to forecast an end to the problem and the pandemic affected its risk management, the company said.

Customers rapidly aired their anger at the decision, both on the company's Facebook page and other social media platforms, with the Syn Mun Kong hashtag in Thailand topping Twitter.

Many customers said they felt cheated by the company and had lost trust in the firm.

"How could you do that? Don't expect people to buy other insurance from you from now," one said.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2149979/syn-mun-kong-cancels-covid-insurance-cites-health-crisis

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From Thai Enquirer

Tighter Covid restrictions coming “very soon”

Stricter Covid restriction measures are coming, the government said on Friday, as the latest steps have not stopped the latest surge of infections.

“The results from five days of the current measures were discussed at the meeting, and led to the concern that there might be a need for stricter measures,” said Dr Apisamai Srirangson, the assistant spokeswoman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).

“There might be a need to close down more businesses and as many as we can,” she added.

She did not give a timescale for the new measures but said it would be “very soon”.

The state-of-emergency decree to prevent the spread of Covid, which has been in effect since March 26 of last year, has also been extended for the 13th time and it will be in effect until the end of September.

Nationwide, there were 9,692 confirmed cases and 67 Covid related deaths in the past 24 hours.

https://www.thaienquirer.com/30016/tighter-covid-restrictions-coming-very-soon/

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From The Thaiger

Covid-19 visa end date extended to September 27

Contrary to the historically last-minute announcements regarding visas for foreigners in Thailand during the pandemic, the Covid-19 visa has been extended nearly 2 weeks before its current July 29 expiration date. The new extension on the Covid-19 visa allowing foreigners to stay longer-term in the country will allow people to continue on this special visa type until September 27.

The Covid -19 visa was originally created to deal with the problem of foreigners who came to Thailand before the pandemic and then found themselves unable to travel home due to closed borders, flight cancellations, travel restrictions, or outbreaks in their home country. Many were stuck waiting for flight options to become available or restrictions at home to be lifted, so am amnesty was developed allowing foreigners to stay longer than the normal 30 or 60 day standards allowed by Thai immigration.

Officials reminded that visa extensions can be requested up to 45 days before the current stamp’s expiration date, so there is no need to wait until the last minute and end up in long queues and crowds.

https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/visa/covid-19-visa-end-date-extended-to-september-27

 

[anddy]

8 hours ago, reader said:

The Covid -19 visa was originally created to deal with the problem of foreigners who came to Thailand before the pandemic and then found themselves unable to travel home due to closed borders, flight cancellations, travel restrictions, or outbreaks in their home country. Many were stuck waiting for flight options to become available or restrictions at home to be lifted, so am amnesty was developed allowing foreigners to stay longer

I wonder what the rationale is for this apparently indefinite extension. All those reasons for getting stuck in Thailand no longer exist for most I'd say. For insane Australia, which is shutting out it's own citizens for no good reason, it clearly still exists, but most others?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, anddy said:

I wonder what the rationale is for this apparently indefinite extension.

Well as we know, they have been granting the extensions to people who are able to return home.   So being "unable" to return home is not the real reason.

I suspect that since there is no longer a large supply of new tourists arriving every day, it makes sense to allow those who are in Thailand to stay as long as they want to, due to the slight increase in tourist revenue.   Of course, it would be more successful if they just granted a 12 month tourist visa.

[Gaybutton]

27 minutes ago, z909 said:

Of course, it would be more successful if they just granted a 12 month tourist visa.

What?  Do something that actually makes sense?  Surely you jest . . .

Unfortunately many of the decisions, rules, and schemes they come up with to deal with this crisis are knee-jerk reactions made by people incompetent to deal with this in the first place.  I'm no more competent than they are.  I admit it.  The problem is they won't admit it. 

I have no idea who would be competent.  Nobody has ever had to deal with a crisis like this before, especially in a modern mobile society.  Nobody has the magic solution.  But I wish they would be more proactive and fully think through their ideas before they impose them.

[TMax]

Latest on that insurance companies plans.

SMK lashed over Covid termination

Insurance regulator to block termination of contracts with lump-sump payments

Thailand's regulator warned Syn Mun Kong Insurance (SMK) on Friday that it cannot arbitrarily terminate Covid-19 insurance contracts with lump-sum payments, threatening legal action or fines if the insurer moves forward with its plan.

The Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC) said it will block the terminations if SMK fails to strictly adhere to all conditions stated in the contracts, according to OIC secretary-general Suthiphon Thaveechaiyagarn.

"We are in discussions with SMK and if it does not change its decision, we can exercise the registrar authority to require the company to honour the condition of the original insurance contracts," Mr Suthiphon said. "The company may be charged fines as well."

SMK warned over contracts

When Covid first struck Thailand last year, insurance companies started to offer non-life Covid-19 insurance policies. Customers could buy 200,000 baht to 2 million baht of coverage for only 450 baht to 1,200 baht a year.

Now insurance companies find themselves not only covering claims by people legitimately suffering from the virus, but also from economically desperate people who purposely got infected to collect insurance money.  

[spoon]

24 minutes ago, TMax said:

Now insurance companies find themselves not only covering claims by people legitimately suffering from the virus, but also from economically desperate people who purposely got infected to collect insurance money.  

What kind of coverage they give if you get infected? Typically here for covid, its all pay and claim, so you wont make money off the insurance.

[PeterRS]

51 minutes ago, TMax said:

When Covid first struck Thailand last year, insurance companies started to offer non-life Covid-19 insurance policies. Customers could buy 200,000 baht to 2 million baht of coverage for only 450 baht to 1,200 baht a year.

The claims adjusters clearly got their sums woefully wrong, no doubt lulled into a false sense of security that they could make big profits because when these policies were marketed the numbers of covid cases in Thailand was so low. Perhaps this company did not even bother placing all or part of the risk with the re-insurance giants. Who knows? Forcing it to pay out on legitimate policies is the obvious course of action. But what if a large number of payouts puts it into bankruptcy? Then many policy holders are well and truly f**ked, and no doubt not just those covered against covid.

It makes one wonder what might happen with the government insisting on medical insurance from Thai insurance companies for certain retirees. How solid are these companies? Before I took out my Thai policy some years ago I checked with the issuer that they used one of the major international re-insurance companies. That made me feel a lot better about the policy.

[anddy]

13 hours ago, spoon said:

What kind of coverage they give if you get infected? Typically here for covid, its all pay and claim, so you wont make money off the insurance.

it's not a health insurance at all, it's more like a covid lottery: if you test positive, you get a lump sum, that's it. Symptoms or not, necessity of treatment, treatment expenses, all irrelevant. Many indeed see it as a way to potentially make some money to cover for lost income due to crisis. I know one boy, who recently told me he bought no less than three such policies! I don't know the details of those and didn't ask, but it sounded like they were all less than 500 Baht in premium, and payouts something like 50k or 100k, maybe 200k.

[spoon]

24 minutes ago, anddy said:

it's not a health insurance at all, it's more like a covid lottery: if you test positive, you get a lump sum, that's it. Symptoms or not, necessity of treatment, treatment expenses, all irrelevant. Many indeed see it as a way to potentially make some money to cover for lost income due to crisis. I know one boy, who recently told me he bought no less than three such policies! I don't know the details of those and didn't ask, but it sounded like they were all less than 500 Baht in premium, and payouts something like 50k or 100k, maybe 200k.

Sounds like a get rich money scam rather than insurance. With these around, no wonder covid cases in thailand cant go down hehe.