dunroving

I've seen within some threads the issue of ageing (of onesself, rather than of parents), and related to that the issue of quality of health care (e.g., free and decent in UK, bloody exhorbitant but good in the US).

I also recently read an article about UK pensioners returning to the UK from Spain (where they'd retired to) because of ill health, unsatisfactory healthcare, and increasing loneliness because their retirement buddies from when they first went to Spain all doing the same disappearing act.

I also occasionally see comments along the line of "I don't want to die in this country".

I fess up that I'm (only) 50 but in this last mad (no, be honest, insane) round of do I try to get back to the US, I'm finding these things are paramount in my thinking. Ironically, none of this was really in the picture 18 months ago when I was actually living in the US, I felt very stable and secure and healthy (superfit, except for glass knees). So why all of a sudden do I feel so much more fearful of having a major illness the minute I set foot back on US soil? Is it the nagging neck and shoulder pain? The feelings of impending doom at 3 a.m.? The creaky knees, hips and back in this cold weather?

Anyone else in the same boat?

jumping doris

Yes. It's the "HMS I'm 50 ".
As you know I am in the US and the healthcare/retirement aspect really stresses me out. It didn't last year when I was 49, well not as much.
It's that terrible feeling that 20 years ago I was only 30 but in another 20 years I'll be 70
Something is bound to go wrong, I tell myself in the small hours, and do I want to be in the US when it does.
And if nothing goes wrong will I be able to enjoy being 70 or will I be the greeter at Walmart unable to afford to retire....all assuming I have my greencard by then.

I also make the assumption that I would be better off healthcare/pension wise in the UK but of course in 20 years time there may not be an NHS or a state pension.

Then again we could both live to be 99 and never have a major illness and we'll have worried for nothing.

Fleaflyfloflum

Yes, this is definitely a factor for me. I have a medical condition that would be life threatening if i did not have my medications. Here in Aus i have to pay around $85 per month for them. When i return to UK they will be free.
I have also had a couple of bad experiences with incorrect diagnosis and mistakes at the hospital which damaged my faith in them. I know it can happen anywhere, but somehow i just feel i will be safer in UK.
Aus has a terrible time recruiting top class medical staff. In the media recently there has been a lot of talk about second rate, badly trained overseas doctors being allowed to practice here. I feel it is through desperation because of the huge shortfall in staff that they allow this.

TruBrit

yes i can relate to your concerns. although i'll be heading home to the UK one of these days regardless, the NHS is a bonus for me.....and yes i've said many, many times...pls don't let me die here in this country!

Shivster

My parents were retired and moved to Spain. Health care worries made them move back.

I had to get a prescription today that for some bizarre reason isn't covered by my insurance and costs $300 which I am not paying. It's scary. I've seen pensioners lined up at CVS with staggering prescription charges and then deciding which of the meds they can afford.

It's definately a factor for me.

TruBrit

i know of one lady that should be taking medicine for diabetes but cannot afford it! a man i know works at my OH's place full time and he's 78 yrs young and cannot afford to retire coz he and his wife's mthly prescriptions run over $3,000

jumping doris

OMG that's so scary
Why isn't there a public outcry over all of this? Can you imagine the headlines in the Mail, yet I never see anything here.

TruBrit

there must be hundreds of other cases similar....i have said that to my OH time and time again....why isn't there a public outcry

Shivster

Americans have been brain washed to believe their health care system is the best in the world and that socalised medicine will lead them on the slippery slope to communism.

I will be seeing Michael Moore's new film- Sicko as soon as it's on DVD.

dunroving

But doesn't Medicare cover much of that when you are over 65?

I think all developing countries are going to have a massive problem pretty soon when the generation of clinically obese, inactive people reaches old age. Plus, read teh news and every cure for an illness is becoming a pill - they are now talking about prescribing statins for children, for goodness sake! I wonder who is driving that one? Pfeizer? Glaxo? Bloody prescription charges will be astronomical by then - and I mean the UK, too. NHS is already starting to refuse to cover some drug treatments.

dunroving

- aye, but look who we get:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6907052.stm

Fleaflyfloflum

True.. but we also have their mate Dr.Mohammed Haneef!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...19/1983221.htm


Then there was the Dr Death saga. The guy had been strippedof his right to be a doctor in America because of negligence, yet turns up in Queensland and get a licence!

fishfinger

I had my wake up call after a terrible operation and stay in a 'hospital' here in Canada. I knew then I couldn't remain in this place and have to put myself through all that again probably in years to come.

The thought of being ill thousands of miles away from anyone who cared for me frightens me.

Shivster

I can't get my head round Medicare at all. I know not every drug is covered and not everyone is covered. Aren't LPR's exempt?

TruBrit

i don't know the answer to that not reaching 65 YET lol!! obviously not all the said work colleagues med bills are being covered otherwise he says he'd have retired a few yrs ago.

today on the news one state is trying to impose an ambulance charge which the peeps don't think the insurance companies will cover.