Brookings OR and Healthcare (Salem, Corvallis: insurance, condo, home)

[1flower]

Hi. We're looking to move away from snowy winters. We've been to Brookings and stayed a few days about 10 yrs ago. It's beautiful. We're retired and looking to downsize and move close to the ocean. I grew up in San Diego and miss the ocean. No comparison with weather and rainfall I know, but I miss those waves and sunsets. Now we're in North Idaho. Has Curry County improved its budget and medical conditions? I know there were difficulties when we were looking at the area before. Thanks everyone.

[Metlakatla]

No, and it likely won't happen any time soon. Health care is horrible all along the coast, but Curry County is even more rural and isolated than the rest of it. Even if they had the budget for it, there's a shortage of health care workers, and it's hard to get people who aren't retired to move there.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by 1flower

Hi. We're looking to move away from snowy winters. We've been to Brookings and stayed a few days about 10 yrs ago. It's beautiful. We're retired and looking to downsize and move close to the ocean. I grew up in San Diego and miss the ocean. No comparison with weather and rainfall I know, but I miss those waves and sunsets. Now we're in North Idaho. Has Curry County improved its budget and medical conditions? I know there were difficulties when we were looking at the area before. Thanks everyone.

Brookings is unlike much of the rest of coastal OR, in that it gets sudden heat spikes throughout the year, due to a local phenomenon called the "Brookings effect", that erodes the fog and its cooling influence. Even so, cool weather is the norm. It gets less rain than some parts of the OR coast, but that's very relative. It's certainly a beautiful area, along with nearby Gold Beach, the county seat.

[Silverfall]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

No, and it likely won't happen any time soon. Health care is horrible all along the coast, but Curry County is even more rural and isolated than the rest of it. Even if they had the budget for it, there's a shortage of health care workers, and it's hard to get people who aren't retired to move there.

^^^This.

We have had several clients that have moved to Salem from Brookings. The politics there won't improve healthcare soon according to them.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Brookings will be a lot warmer in the winter than North Idaho, and it will be cooler in the summer. Just be aware that there will be nearly non-stop rain.


If you pick a coastal city that has a direct route and good roads to one of the larger cities you should be able to drive easily to medical. Like you could live in Newport and get to Corvallis easily. Then keep medivac insurance for emergencies where you can't drive.



I can't see where politics has anything to do with healthcare. There isn't good healthcare because there isn't enough population to support expensive buildings, expensive equipment, and expensive staff. Health care is a business and they put in big fancy healthcare where they can make money with it.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

I can't see where politics has anything to do with healthcare. There isn't good healthcare because there isn't enough population to support expensive buildings, expensive equipment, and expensive staff. Health care is a business and they put in big fancy healthcare where they can make money with it.

Politics has a lot to do with it.

Politics determines the level of investment in local public heath clinics and other public health infrastructure. And the level of support for such agencies. How many attacks on public health officials have we seen in rural areas around the country during the Covid pandemic? Many rural public health workers have been driven out of their communities by anti-Vax or anti-mask crazies, by the Ivermectin crowd and other nonsense.

Politics determines how easy/hard it is for new private or non-profit medical providers to build new facilities and establish offices and clinics on the coast. Is it easy for a primary care doctor to buy land and build a new clinic in Brookings compared to say Tualatin? or is it difficult?

Politics determines how good or bad the local schools are which is going to be of ACUTE interest to most medical professionals with families who are contemplating moving to the coast

And politics generally determines the ambiance of a place and how welcoming it is to outsiders and what kind of outsiders are welcomed. Which greatly affects whether people are going to be interested in moving there or not. A liberal young doctor or nurse with a family who is Asian, Black, or Hispanic is going to use a very different set of criteria for determining where to build a home and practice than a 60-something conservative white retiree couple with an RV.

I have a cousin who is a primary care doctor in the Newport area. Her family ended up moving back to the Salem area for schools and more opportunity and she is now commuting to her practice 4-times a week from Salem and staying in a condo they own but spending the rest of her life back in Salem. She is sick to death of dealing with local folks who are in denial about basic science and health care. They exist in Salem too of course, but not to the extent that she experiences on the coast.

NOTE: I'm not saying that all of this characterizes Brookings. I don't know Brookings well enough to have an informed opinion. I'm just commenting generally on how politics makes it easier or more difficult for rural communities to attract and retain robust health care services.

[Metlakatla]

Newport and Salem appear to have about the same blue/red percentages. But I can see how it would be easier to get away from the extremists in a larger community.

Brookings is more isolated than most coastal communities; even Coos Bay is more than two hours away. It also receives more rain than most of the other parts of the coast, and the "Brookings effect" is just an occasional occurrence. I can see why a professional family wouldn't want to move there simply because of the lack of amenities and the not-so-great weather, and even the most progressive politics aren't going to change the remoteness factor and the climate.

Off-topic, but I don't think I could ever live in Salem again. I used to go out to Cascade Gateway park every single day and walk around it with my dogs, but that isn't safe anymore. It always was a little sketchy out there but nothing that ever felt unsafe.

[Metlakatla]

Say what you want about the coast, but this is Salem these days. And these guys are city employees? Wouldn't fly in Florence and probably not Newport either.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SALEM/comme...at_honky_tonk/

[Hoonose]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Brookings will be a lot warmer in the winter than North Idaho, and it will be cooler in the summer. Just be aware that there will be nearly non-stop rain.


If you pick a coastal city that has a direct route and good roads to one of the larger cities you should be able to drive easily to medical. Like you could live in Newport and get to Corvallis easily. Then keep medivac insurance for emergencies where you can't drive.



I can't see where politics has anything to do with healthcare. There isn't good healthcare because there isn't enough population to support expensive buildings, expensive equipment, and expensive staff. Health care is a business and they put in big fancy healthcare where they can make money with it.

We went through Brookings last summer. And I've lived and practiced medicine in smaller rural towns. Small town politics may be locally important for many reasons, but with a town as small as Brookings, and location, a larger scale health facility is not going to happen. IME small conservative towns want HC as much as anywhere. In fact that was a big reason I left the big city Midwest for rural AZ.

[Silverfall]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Say what you want about the coast, but this is Salem these days. And these guys are city employees? Wouldn't fly in Florence and probably not Newport either.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SALEM/comme...at_honky_tonk/

It is a sliver of Salem, but it isn't the totality of Salem. Salem is pretty politically moderate. I'd say we are pretty 50/50 liberal and conservative. We are like all cities that have their share of cuckoo crazies. Salem is no exception in that regard.