Healthcare For Expats in Thailand Is Both Convenient And Luxurious

Entrance to Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand

Listen to live interview:  Healthcare in Thailand

Don’t you often wonder what the American expats who live in Thailand think about the glitzy medical tourism hospitals, like Bumrungrad, and about the quality of the healthcare experienced by the people who live there?

Your healthcare experience in Thailand “is just absolutely convenient and inexpensive,” says American expat Cynthia Crowder, “the doctors even work on Sunday.”

And although Crowder has medical insurance through her husband’s U.S. employer, healthcare in Thailand so inexpensive they rarely bother with the paperwork and just pay out of pocket.

Crowder says walking into Bumrungrad Hospital is “like walking into a five-star resort. There’s Au Bon Pain, Starbucks; it’s absolutely gorgeous.” And there’s no long wait to see a doctor. Usually you can go in the same day you call for an appointment.

“If you go to Bumrungrad for a doctor appointment you may have to wait 15-20 minutes, but you won’t have to wait much longer than that,” said Crowder, “They get you in, they take care of you, you pay your bill, they give you the drugs right there, and you’re on your way.”

“I’m taking my daughter to a specialist today for a sinus infection, ” said Crowder, “She’ll go in and maybe have an X-ray done of her sinuses, and then a scope, and then she’ll probably get an antibiotic, and we’ll walk out of there for less than $100.”

Crowder said people who have been in Thailand for a long time often go to Samitivej Hospital instead of Bumrungrad, “just because maybe the prices are a little bit higher and there are so many people who are coming in to Bumrungrad from around the world, said Crowder, “It’s kind of a ‘tourist’ hospital.

“The tourists come in and stay at resorts and have all kinds of things done,” said Crowder, “You see a lot of Middle Eastern people at Bumrungrad. So in that way it may be a little busy and hectic, but nothing compared to how hectic hospitals are in America.”

Listen to Crowders’ interviews on her family’s lifestyle and on the cost of living and working opportunities in Thailand.