Bob

Medicaid is federal...

And medical insurance without work, if your both healthy could be a couple grand a month and you've got to figure in co-pay, deductibles, prescription costs etc.

Perhaps look at a B2 visa and just come for 6 month stretches during the summer?

lansbury

The Medicare web site is at http://www.medicare.gov/

This gives an explanation of both http://www.michiganinbrief.org/editi...s/issue-45.htm

penguinsix

Another thing to remember is as part of the immigration paperwork you and your sponsor have to basically assert that you won't become a 'public charge'--i.e. dependent upon the government for basic needs. Your son has to sign an affidavit of support promising that he will fund your needs (including health care).

If you came over and went for Medi-caid (the low income medical insurance), then you would basically be seeking government assistance for your needs and that could be problematic.

This might sound strange, but a number of 'parents' of my friends (who are immigrants) have a health plan that is basically "get some form of cheap insurance to help with doctor visits, drugs, and emergency care but if all hell breaks lose and they need some major surgery, fly them home to their original country for treatment."

My nanny broke her tooth one day and needed to get a bridge replaced (or something like that). We priced around some dentists here, and she called her dentist back home in China. It turned out to be cheaper to buy her a ticket home, get the procedure in China, and have her take a few weeks vacation than it was to get it done here. She went back, got it done, had a blast with her friends and family (and we had to do the parent thing for three weeks without her help). We appreciate her even more now...

lyndilou

thanks for your help I read on the application that he would have be 'sponsor' for us and I that is no problem initially I was thinking long term also though. You never know what lies ahead.

lyndilou

hello again I think that would be viable to fly home again as we would be doing occasionally to visit friends and family you have cheered me up no end I was feeling a bit dispondant before I read your message thanks

scrubbedexpat099

Technically once you are no resident you are not entitled to GP care in the UK.

Don't ask, don't tell.

Giantaxe

Tough to fly home in an emergency medical situation. That's the kind of issue you're leaving yourself open to, and if you do need treatment here that you can't pay for, they likely will come after your sponsor. One major medical expense can be a bankrupting experience here:- medical bills are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.

Englishmum

Once you have left the UK to live overseas you're no longer eligible to use the NHS other than for emergency care. Our medical records from our GP in the UK have been sent to some 'dormant records' facility.

It's all very well saying that "if all hell breaks loose and they need some major surgery, then fly them home to their original country for treatment", but medical care in Third World countries eg. Thailand, Philippines, Mexico, China is dirt cheap. What happens if the person is too sick to fly or needs long-term treatment for cancer?

We all know that the biggest cause of bankruptcy in the US is due to medical bills - I suggest that the O/P watches the Michael Moore documentary film "Sicko".

Tens of thousands of senior citizens in the States are moving to Mexico because they can't afford to live in the US:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...singhome_n.htm

(On the same page in blue text is a series or articles on Americans coping with ageing parents....some food for thought).

scrubbedexpat099

Just wondering how your GP knows where you are, trying to remember if they write to you every now and then to find out if you are still living.

India is the obvious one, I know a few people who have done that. I had treatment in Sri Lanka, very good.

With a critical eye knowing his underlying motivation.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens in Mexico are moving to USA because they can't afford to live in Mexico

Works both ways

Giantaxe

Not really bothered about his motivation as longer as he gets his facts right. Which by and large he does. Of course, it pays to watch anything with a critical eye.

Indeed. But these hundreds of thousands typically aren't people in the fifties and above with larger potential medical needs.

Mallory

They still have to come back to the US for their medical care. Medicare won't pay in Mexico. That's why most of them live not too from the border, so they can hop back into the US.

scrubbedexpat099

I met some in Oaxaca, a long way from the Border, now they did not have major medical issues, I was told that they got out because otherwise they would be triler trash in US and they can live there comfortably.

Mallory

Right, they can have a maid and a gardener in Mexico. In the US they would have to clean their own toilets!

scrubbedexpat099

Err no.

They had what I would call a small bungalow, access to quality food year around, a bit of spare cash to travel around.

I think all the Maids and Gardeners moved to the US.

Englishmum

If you had read the link from USA Today (here it is again) it says:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...singhome_n.htm

"For medical care, Slater relies on the Mexican Social Security Institute or IMSS, which runs clinics and hospitals nationwide and allows foreigners to enroll in its program even if they never worked in Mexico or paid taxes to support the system. He recently had gallbladder surgery in an IMSS hospital in Guadalajara, and he paid nothing"...

(It also adds that many of the nursing home staff and his doctor speaks English).

I would think that the thought of moving to the US to live with ones offspring if one is relatively healthy and in their 50s is attractive.....but I don't know if it's so attractive when one is old and feeble, possibly with Alzheimer's or a chronic long-term illness and the medical fees mounting up.