Quote:
Originally Posted by restlessyankee
I'm 57, use the VA for health care. Right now the nearest hospital is 75 miles away but there is a local VA outpatient clinic for routine doctor visits and bloodwork. I'm in pretty decent health so far.
I'm still working and have no family left at all.I own a small house in upstate NY and considering moving closer to the VA hospital in NY or out of the snow all together.
What do you think is best option for retirement?
|
The older you get, the more important the
quality of your available healthcare options will become. Trust me.
This is especially true if you are the kind of person who is very engaged in your healthcare. For example, I'm a research geek and have never unquestioningly accepted what any doctor has told me or recommended. For one thing, I've seen too many of them screw up. On the other hand, I have a couple of friends whose attitude is "I just do whatever the doctor tells me, because I really don't want to think about it." To them a doctor is a doctor is a doctor. But I'm the type who wants easy access to a wide choice of excellent specialists and services for anything that might come up, and a GP is -- in my mind -- merely a jack of all trades but master of none. I would also not want to live further than a 10 minute ride from an excellent hospital because in an emergency every second counts. The reason I'm remaining in a high COL area is because you pretty much can't throw a rock without hitting a medical professional or a very good hospital.
I can also relate to you because I'm not fond of snow either. I did once briefly consider moving south (when I was in my early 50s) but one of the two things that deterred me was the available medical choices. The difference was similar to that between looking for food choices inside a single refrigerator versus a supermarket. I want the supermarket, lol
IMHO in your case it would be a good option to move from your harsh upstate winters to downstate. Not sure how far upstate you are but the difference between winter on Long Island and winter in, say, Buffalo is like night and day. Yes there will be snow but typically only a few inches (less than a foot) at a time and often it will mostly or completely disappear before the next storm arrives. If you're used to upstate winters a downstate winter will be a walk in the park. The downside to downstate is the cost of living (housing and real estate taxes) but since you're in NY you already know about things like Enhanced STAR, the Low-income Senior tax reductions, and the veterans exemption.
There are three VA hospitals in downstate NY, as you probably know: the NY City and Brooklyn locations, and the one in Northport on Long Island. The Northport one is centrally located so if you live anywhere in Nassau or Suffolk counties except way out on the eastern ends, you will probably be within about 25 miles of it. There are also four VA outpatient clinics on Long Island. (local FYI: although Queens county is geographically part of Long Island, it's considered "part of the city" by all natives here)
There is also a NY State Veterans facility at Stony Brook University Hospital, if you don't already know of it:
https://veteranshome.stonybrookmedicine.edu
IMHO if you are most concerned about quality of care, I'd go for the downstate-NY/Long Island relocation option if it's affordable. As for snow, here's a table of historical annual snowfall totals from the 1940s until last winter:
https://projects.newsday.com/databas...wfall-history/
Any one of these entire years probably equates to a single upstate winter snowfall, LOL
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
