Thanks for the comments, some helpful, some as expected on facebook that not helpful at all. Trying to understand what this Facebook section is all about, I assumed it was here to assist people with their enquiries not to belittle or make silly comments.
does that mean that the next year you are tied into using an agent again, or are you able to complete the application yourself - asking as I will probably use an agent the first time but want to do it myself afterwards
you can obtain the retirement visa in Thailand which means you are not required to have the health insurance for the visa. That gives you more choice to get the health insurance that really suits your needs