Kairos2025

Sabah is a retirement dream, with ocean and mountains nearby to enjoy and explore, while inter religious diversity and tolerance are so much better than other cities in MY. Back to the weather, much to the surprise of most UK based Brits who happily moan about the weather, I agree that we will miss the autumn and winter if we retire in MY😀

RedApe

I'm in Kuching, Sarawak - ditto on the better religious and ethnic tolerance in East Malaysia. Discrimination and racism exists but it's far more subtle. A lot more is expressed on the internet where anonymity is present (same everywhere). We have some highlands but even the high mountains only get up to about 8000 feet. The Borneo Highlands Resort is about 3200-3300 feet. Which is certainly about half the altitude of the hotels and GH's in Kundasang in Sabah. Still nice and cool.

And while we do get storms and rain (and some days with high temps) no hurricanes, tsunamis, typhoons (in Sarawak), earthquakes, volcanos, etc.

Hopefully the Covid pandemic abates soon. We've been really lucky (and careful) in Sarawak. The current hidden fear is rabies. On survey of strays in Sibu showed about a 50% infectivity rate! And this is with the vaccination program. Maybe they used antibody testing...and were getting false positives with already vaccinated dogs?

IanBlakeley

I think you may struggle to get insurance to cover a pre-existing condition. Both my wife a Malaysian citizen with Right of Abode in the UK and I had to have medicals and there was a bit of a to and fro until my cover was accepted. I have some plural scarring from breaking my ribs in a road accident in 2005 which showed up on the X-rays. As a citizen in Malaysia you can use the government hospital I believe and if you use LTSVP for your wife she could too. Might be worth checking the cost of that to see how it works out.

Kairos2025

thanks, yeah we are weighing medical insurance as one of factors as I think my diabetic condition requires longer term care and concerns. Most insurance put a term limit and won’t cover after a certain age. Thanks to all, stay safe.

tdrinker

The issue isn't so much that insurance companies won't insure someone after a certain age, but some won't take a new client after a certain age. If you're already with them you can continue coverage. However, they might use excessive annual premium increases to make cover unaffordable and get rid of older people that way instead.

Kairos2025

Another longer term comparative costs would be long term care homes in UK, while I assume the quality might be generally better than MY, is steadily growing towards costs which might reach a tipping point when such equivalent costs could pay for excellent private care in Malaysia. My colleague just had to put her mum to a mid range care home for £1500 per week, her mum has mild dementia but still healthy and lucid (occasional loss of memory which resulted in children deciding she needs extra care). What are the viable options in Malaysia for longer term elderly care?

RedApe

There are several Retirement Villages and Long-Term Care facilities in Malaysia as the population ages. As well some facilities are more oriented towards foreign retirees. There seems to be some reticence in the establishment of such facilities by some politicians with these people suggesting that it should remain the responsibility of family members in the home and that creating long-term care facilities will result in parental abandonment. I also suppose that one could hire a full-time or part-time nursing assistant.

https://homecare.onedaymd.com/2017/0...-malaysia.html

Kairos2025

Thanks for the informative information re retirement homes/options!

RedApe

You're welcome. At the bottom there are a couple of articles about nursing aides for home are in Malaysia. That might be also relevant if the mum wants to remain with you. There are a number of services Kuching that also arrange Full or Part-Time Nursing aides for Elderly home care (Malfi,Kenneth Cae, Longevity Health Services i-Care and several hospitals).

https://homecare.onedaymd.com/2017/0...-malaysia.html