Coping With A Divided Family
 

With married children both here in the US and back in England, and the time for retirement closing in, the question has been raised. What do we do when we retire? Do we stay here, where we have lived for the last thirty years, or do we drag up and move back to England, with the obvious advantage of the National Health Service. I would be very interested to hear from any other people in the same predicament and to learn how they have or will handle the situation when the time arrives.

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

Medicare is a concern, both in terms of its cost and possible major "reforms" by the Republicans. But at least over 65's do (currently!) have a single-payer system that is being denied to everyone else. A bigger concern to me is health care access in the years before I am eligible for Medicare.

My plan is to split time between the two countries. There's been a long thread on the difficulties of doing this on the moving back to the UK forum that would be a good starting point for this kind of retirement arrangement.

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

Thanks for the quick reply, the thought of splitting time between the two countrys is appealing, but the logistics of doing it every year is mind boggling even if you take the financial side out of the equation. But I will look up and read the thread you sugested.

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

We are in a similar predicament...although we only have one child and she lives in Canada. We do not have a visa for Canada and the Canadian government are making it extremely difficult for retirees to get PR. We can split our time between the UK and Canada...but what happens if one has a serious health issue...or as the years go by you cannot get travel insurance?

These are things many expats don't consider when they are planning to move from the UK. :(

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

You have to pick one country at that point.

That is oh so true.

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

There is this option;

http://www.saga.co.uk/insurance/travel-insurance.aspx


Jim.

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

I'm thinking ahead J. A couple of years ago I had a nightmare of a job trying to get my MIL travel insurance. When I did manage to get insurance the doctor changed one of her meds...I had to inform the insurance company of this and they pulled the cover. Even if you're in the 50/60's...you could have major problems getting travel insurance if you have health problems.

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

Sure makes you wonder


Jim.

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

With kids in both places, I'd probably live in UK (personal preference) and visit the US annually, pick the season you love best and stay a month each year. But like other say as you age medical cover could get harder. My Mom is 73 and only visits for a short time now, the plane ride exhausts her and she takes days now to get over it and insurance is harder to find, but it is out there.
Or make your kids behave and all live in one country :lol:

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

Another question, if you are still a UK citizen, would you need travel insurance? Or would you be entitled to be treated by the NHS if you had a medical emergency?

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

If you are a resident in UK you get to use the NHS, if not you'd need travel insurance to go there. Our Blue cross insurance here in the US covers us internationally. (I asked before we went) The NHS still will treat you in emergencies no problem sometimes they don't even ask for payment and other times they will want payment. Depends on who asks the questions and where you are treated, some areas are more used to tourists than others.

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

If you're receiving a UK pension and have previously lived in the UK for at least 10 years, you're entitled to NHS care regardless. I think I put a link in the thread I referred to earlier to the requisite NHS page. So if you fulfill that and are also Medicare eligible, travel insurance seems moot. And if you are of retirement age, one's parents probably aren't around any more, so it's moot for them too.

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

The husband & I are in this situation, only the opposite way round from you. We have children settled in both the US and the UK, and we ourselves are duals who had lived a long time in England & felt settled there.

When the husband accepted early retirement last year, we had to decide what to do & where to go. Several factors pulled us back to the States. We both have older family members who've been hoping for years that we'd move Stateside. We also have the afore-mentioned children settled here. Health insurance (of a sort) is in place till Medicare kicks in. And, lastly, we couldn't afford to buy a house in the part of England where we had our ties, but we can afford this here in this part of the US.

So . . . we moved back here to see how it goes. The jury's still out. It's been a difficult adjustment, & I'm not certain what twist the story will take.

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

As far as I am aware, this is not true. There is no "lifetime" entitlement to use the NHS if you move outside the United Kingdom to live permanently in another country. Although you can always move back.

If you have better information, perhaps share it again?

Re: Coping With A Divided Family
 

If you are entitled to Medicare, is the National Health Service really a better deal? Different perhaps - but better?