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Yes but it’s not wealthy retirees moving there. It’s couples who have savings and income but not enough to afford $800 a month for their supplemental policies. Health care is expensive in retirement here.
You're piling assumptions on top of assumptions.
You can't possibly know the demographics of who is retiring overseas well enough to state the ones who do can't afford supplemental health insurance policies to get care, or that have ACA policies with very low premiums due to subsidies.
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Originally Posted by ocnjgirl
And those statistics may reflect high rates of survival at our top hospitals, but maybe people like me in relatively rural areas, who have restrictive networks, well maybe for us the survival rate is closer to the Thai rate so it might not be much change. Maybe there they can afford to go to the top cancer doc while here they can’t.
I'm pretty sure WHO statistics are for the population as a whole, not just the minority of people from each country who can afford top hospitals with cutting edge treatment.
But what would these same men do back in the States?
Exactly, self-destructive behavior is a problem with certain people not certain countries. If you took those blokes from the bar stools in the farang-row and put them back in the USA they'd be at the corner bar up the street doing the same thing, and if funds made the difference they'd instead be sitting alone in their house worshipping their 30 pack of Bush Lite.
You can't possibly know the demographics of who is retiring overseas well enough to state the ones who do can't afford supplemental health insurance policies to get care, or that have ACA policies with very low premiums due to subsidies.
I'm pretty sure WHO statistics are for the population as a whole, not just the minority of people from each country who can afford top hospitals with cutting edge treatment.
The articles are about people moving to these countries in retirement due to the lower cost of living. Many of those on these forums have told their stories about being able to afford a better retirement there because their money goes farther. Wealthy retirees are not the typical American retiree moving to Thailand, Mexico, even Ecaudor as one of our posters here did.
People over 65 cannot get insurance through the ACA, you get moved to Medicare. Medicare has 20% co-pays, only covers 20 days of rehab, and these and other expenses make a supplemental policy a necessity. There are no ACA subsidies for supplemental policies. They are expensive. My mother’s was a mid-range and was $350 a month 3 years ago. She is now out of money after being in her assisted living for about 5 years, and on Medicaid. Her assisted living is $9,000 a month at her current care level. In Mexico would be about $1000 or so. This is why Americans are retiring to these countries.
I won’t argue with you about this, but I’ve wirked in health care 20 years and been a consumer of it in restrictive policies for even longer. I know there are differences in health care and outcomes depending f on insurance and the doctors you have to pick from. Being able to afford the top doc in Thailand (who as one poster pointed out probably went to med school here) is likely to result in a better outcome than the doc who is mediocre but the only one in your plan accepting new patients.
We have an awful health care system compared to much of the modern world, and again I will state that the newest technology and drugs doesn’t matter if much of the population can’t access them.
The articles are about people moving to these countries in retirement due to the lower cost of living. Many of those on these forums have told their stories about being able to afford a better retirement there because their money goes farther. Wealthy retirees are not the typical American retiree moving to Thailand, Mexico, even Ecaudor as one of our posters here did.
Articles profiling people moving due to cost of living does not tell you that they cannot afford a Medicare supplement, not does it detail all of them since it's focusing on people who have affordability issues in USA.
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Originally Posted by ocnjgirl
People over 65 cannot get insurance through the ACA, you get moved to Medicare.
But (surprise!) some people move to Thailand who are under 65 and retired.
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Originally Posted by ocnjgirl
I won’t argue with you about this, but I’ve wirked in health care 20 years and been a consumer of it in restrictive policies for even longer.
Yet you've never lived in Thailand, used healthcare in Thailand, and make all sorts of assumptions about people based on articles you read that are only about a certain segment of people. It's amazing you're lecturing that healthcare in Thailand is as good with zero experience with it, then suddenly leaning so heavily on it regarding USA.
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Originally Posted by ocnjgirl
We have an awful health care system compared to much of the modern world, and again I will state that the newest technology and drugs doesn’t matter if much of the population can’t access them.
For treatment we don't, five year survival rates for major diseases disagree with you and your flailing about claiming they must just be looking at people who go to the very best hospitals doesn't hold water. Take it up with WHO if you agree with treatment success.
Articles profiling people moving due to cost of living does not tell you that they cannot afford a Medicare supplement, not does it detail all of them since it's focusing on people who have affordability issues in USA.
But (surprise!) some people move to Thailand who are under 65 and retired.
Yet you've never lived in Thailand, used healthcare in Thailand, and make all sorts of assumptions about people based on articles you read that are only about a certain segment of people. It's amazing you're lecturing that healthcare in Thailand is as good with zero experience with it, then suddenly leaning so heavily on it regarding USA.
For treatment we don't, five year survival rates for major diseases disagree with you and your flailing about claiming they must just be looking at people who go to the very best hospitals doesn't hold water. Take it up with WHO if you agree with treatment success.
What are you taking such issue with? I never said it’s better to retire in Thailand. I said it was more affordable and that’s a fact. I don’t care about those under 65, that’s not the topic. I’m not just going by articles, we have several posters on these forums who are ex pats. We are just going to have to agree to disagree about the quality of healthcare in the U.S. You seem to be taking this very personally, whatever I triggered I don’t know, but I’m done defending my views to you as it’s obvious you’re not open to them.
What are you taking such issue with? I never said it’s better to retire in Thailand. I said it was more affordable and that’s a fact. I don’t care about those under 65, that’s not the topic. I’m not just going by articles, we have several posters on these forums who are ex pats. We are just going to have to agree to disagree about the quality of healthcare in the U.S. You seem to be taking this very personally, whatever I triggered I don’t know, but I’m done defending my views to you as it’s obvious you’re not open to them.
You are right on as usual, OCN. We had to move out of the U.S. to afford health care, plus a superior quality of life for what we could afford.
If I was one of those wealthy retirees, I'd stay in the U.S. if I could be beachfront, LOL. This choice worked out well for us and we've already been in the medical system which was just fine.
Thailand sounds great too, but a much longer trip; different money and alphabet. Dealing with Spanish is hard enough for our aging brains! Plus it's only 4 hours to the U.S.
You are right on as usual, OCN. We had to move out of the U.S. to afford health care, plus a superior quality of life for what we could afford.
If I was one of those wealthy retirees, I'd stay in the U.S. if I could be beachfront, LOL. This choice worked out well for us and we've already been in the medical system which was just fine.
Thailand sounds great too, but a much longer trip; different money and alphabet. Dealing with Spanish is hard enough for our aging brains! Plus it's only 4 hours to the U.S.
By my reckoning, the main reason for retiring abroad isn’t to reduce one’s cost of living, but to improve one’s quality of life. I’d like to live in a place with a mild and consistent climate, where the prevailing ethos is decidedly secular, where evolution and global-warming are accepted as being overwhelmingly likely (if not outright facts). These traits are hard to find in modern America, except perhaps in the most expensive and exclusive areas – which, I suppose, does hearken back to the cost-of-living issue. Otherwise, I’d rather retire somewhere in Europe, rather than equatorial Asia.
As for the healthcare issue, it remains true, that American medicine is top-notch, for diagnosing and treating serious ailments, provided that one can obtain the requisite access. American healthcare fails woefully in treating dislocated shoulders or broken bones, at moderate cost. Retirees at 65 and beyond do, all things taken into account, manage pretty well under Medicare. But what about younger retirees, say at age 50… especially if they’re “high income”, and don’t qualify for ACA subsidies?
And one more thing about cost of living… US federal income taxes will follow us anywhere. For those of us whose #1 annual expense is taxes on our portfolios, neither Thailand nor anywhere else on the planet will offer escape.
The best solution, evidently, is to have a formal permanent domicile in some US state that’s tax-friendly (South Dakota? Washington State?)… but to split one’s time between Europe (at least 9 months of the year) and somewhere tropical (winter).
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