As a digital nomad and then a bitter old expat I didn't believe in health insurance for a long time. Why should I? I never get sick or injured. But even immortal people such as myself have doubts and in the end the fear got the better of me and I got covered. Now I'm slap bang in the middle of the 30 - 50 age bracket so consider this when taking my advice. It will certainly apply to digital nomads of all ages. It may or may not apply to older expats with preconditions. If you are an older expat you'll probably need to do the research that I never did. Or at least I did some and never felt confident that any would pay me out. It may be worth getting a broker involved. However, if you are the younger side of 50, fairly well looked after and no previous problems then this is what I'd recommend doing.. Sign up to SafetyWing (this is not sponsored, it's just what most digital nomads were using when I researched). I have zero affiliation with them. I just investigated them and they seem like the simplest no bullshit option.

There are 2 packages on SafetyWing currently. The "Nomad Insurance" covers you while you're in Pattaya (assuming that's less than 6 months a year). You can sign up and pay monthly in advance and it's all online with no talking to humans which is amazing. Usually policies start 15 days after approval which takes a couple of days. This option costs about $133 per month which is just under 5k baht per month. I think you can turn it on and off if you do end up working 6 months in your home country. Being an expat I couldn't get this one as my home country is Thailand. For the nomad one they can price it a bit lower I guess as they will try to return you to your home country if things go chronically wrong.
The second option called "Nomad Health" has no such limitations about residence. It's a bit more expensive at $199 per month (just over 7k baht per month) but covers you while being a permanently resident in Thailand. In fact you can live in almost any country and get covered apart from a short list of crazy places like America and Hong Kong. Now obviously you should read all of the information on their website. If you do that you will know far more than I do as I just skimmed over it.
What I do know is there's a very good chance that if I have a problem while living in Pattaya in terms of sickness or an accident I'll get everything paid for by the insurance as it happens.
They give you a card with a number to call which I've given to the girlfriend and she can get me put back together like the million dollar man.
The site link is here for anyone who wants to remove a bit of risk from their life: https://safetywing.com/
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