lapin_windstar

Sounds lovely - I hear there is actually quite a lot of Brit "snowbirds" caravanners/motor homers along the Portuguese coast.

Duncan Roberts

You may think that you are in good health but you just posted several risk factors that will jack up a premium. Private health insurance (rather than group) will ask you a million and one questions and assign risk to them. Cycling and surfing will ding you since there is risk of injury involved, higher than some other sports and the cholesterol result may put you in the high risk cardio category which could add some significant cost to the premium and/or add some coverage exclusions. They will also look at family history and even if you show no signs of anything, if you have a family history of things like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, ect, then that will ding you as well. You also have to remember, it doesn't matter how healthy you or your doctor think you are now, the insurance company looks at short and long term risk and you are not in a good position there.

However, it does seem like you have no need for health insurance from a US company since you have no visa option.

Seneca21

Excellent points. Is the US really the best country to retire to anyway? The healthcare issues have been dealt with very well on this thread, plus it's a country with a debt/GDP ratio of 90%, a $13 trillion debt and a $1.5 trillion deficit. And if that's not scary enough (it should be) the population is armed and is not going to like the imminent drop in their living standards.

Better off in France, Dai. Really.

chrisfromusa

Because we all run around on horses with spurs and cowboy hats shooting our pistols off in the air and yelling Seriously, no one's gonna be shooting anybody here no matter how bad it gets. We're not the uncivilized bunch many liberals think we are. Big difference between a law abiding armed citizen and an armed MS13, etc, gang member

Seneca21

People will do whatever they have to do to secure property and access to fresh water and food. Americans are no better than the French and British and they are no better than Ugandans. They just have it better. Look at Greece - they cut a few paycheques and they burn the city and kill bank clerks.

The US is a country that goes $1 million further into unrepayable debt every 20 seconds. You do the maths.

sallysimmons

Wow! Here in NYC, we pay $1,400 for my OH and I. It's great coverage, but the premium goes up about 20% every year. We're in our late 40s but self-employed, so the whole cost falls on us.

The cost isn't the only issue with the US system though - it's also the insecurity. Even if you get coverage, there's no guarantee that your insurer won't find some reason to dump you when you get sick.

Seneca21

I read a pretty unsettling story about a British man in the US somewhere who got very ill and then lost his job. Basically the insurance company just told him to get lost and he had to return the UK for life-saving treatment. Stories like this make me understand the effort Obama tried to put into a healthcare system but the pig's breakfast he ended up with is not enough.

And you pay $16,800 per year and it goes up this year by another $3400? Considering real wages are staying stagnant health costs sound like they are rocketing.

lapin_windstar

That was kind of British taxpayers...

Seneca21

This man had moved to America in middle age so he had paid plenty of taxes into the British Treasury over the years. I presume he had also paid plenty of taxes into the US Treasury as well but that counted for zip.

lapin_windstar

Disnae matter. NHS care is not like pensions where you're entitled to past recognition (sometimes). You either ordinarily resident in the UK and are entitled to use it, or you're not.

I'm not unsympathetic to the guy, obviously - I mean, what else is he going to do?

Duncan Roberts

No idea of the story but it sounds like he moved back to the UK so he would be eligible for NHS treatment.

Jerseygirl

I didn't realise you were from the UK.

Hank.C

I am not how it works but my grandma, came to this country at her 60's , has never worked in US, was eligible for Medicare when she reached 65. She received one of the top-notched services at one of the best Medical Center when diagnosing with Cancer. She never paid a dime out of her pocket and the government picked up the tab.

Ray

unless you pay for the required quarters into the
social security ... them one you have been a green card holder for 5 years you can pay monthly

if you have paid for full benefits you pay $98 a month
if you have not paid in its around $600 a month

therefore your story it crap ...

Seneca21

He did move back there to get treatment, but if you think about it, if you can't get the treatment in America then you have to move back to Britain, and then you are ordinarily resident there, because you are a citizen with no intentions of leaving the UK again.

My view is that he deserved the treatment on the NHS.