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Does Medicare pay for Medi-flight or is there a special rider that people in more rural areas get? If you need specialty care some five hours' drive away, are you on your own?
That can certainly be the case. The 5 hours trip is exactly what happened to me on one occasion. I was in Bandon Beach when I started to have a retinal detachment. It got bad really quickly. My wife and I got some help. A paramedic actually drove our camper an hour to the nearest town with a hospital. That did virtually no good. There was nothing they could do for me. There was a local ophthalmologist but he was either not interested or not available. We "camped" in the hospital parking lot until morning. By then I was 90% blind in the one eye. The ophthalmologist was not able to help..no suitable surgical experience, no suitable facility, no suitable staff. My wife had to pull herself together and drive the RV across mountain roads for 5 plus hours to Portland. I had surgery that night but the treatment issues continued for weeks and weeks. Had we lived in Bandon, we would have needed to move to Portland for the recovery period. After the initial period, we would have had to go back and forth numerous times over a 3 month period.
Years later my wife had a similar experience. She had an attack of diverticulitis. In case you are not familiar that disease can require immediate treatment with antibiotics. She got extremely sick within hours of the onset and was in the hospital for 10 days. Surgical intervention was under consideration the whole time. We were living at home and near a hospital when that happened. A year later we were traveling in southern Utah when she experienced symptoms. We were able to wait for the next day and get oral antibiotics. We then had to drive 4 hours to Salt Lake City in case her condition worsened. At that point she gave up and flew back to the east coast to have her situation monitored.
This past year my sister had a major issue. She lives in a small city with 2 large hospitals. Unfortunately she had a massive aortic aneurysm that required 2 major surgeries. The specialists and appropriate facilities were hours away on the other side of the State. Her husband died the year before so she was largely on her own. She had family and friends come in from out of State to help but her medical issues and went on for months and months. She also had 2 dogs to arrange care for.
I could go on with more similar stories, but I think the point is clear. The time is takes to get to a hospital for handling a crisis, such as a heart attack, can mean the difference between dying and surviving with a full recovery. BUT that is only one consideration. Trying to deal with medical issues that require prolonged treatment and/or recovery can be extremely difficult when the medical facility is hours from your house.
The consideration is not as simple as thinking I want to live in a rural area and accept the risk that an emergency might occur and I might die. As we age it becomes extremely likely that we will need hospitalization or another form of sophisticated medical care. The care could involve multiple trips and extended recovery times.
I think one can find a compromise if one tries.
...the only thing that appeals to me are small towns with not more than 10,000 people
I would never move to a large city to be near the best hospitals.
The compromise is the small(er) town not too far from the large city.
You get to define what "not too far" means to YOU.
Quote:
There are small towns with small hospitals that are about a 30 minutes from larger hospitals...
But there are fewer and fewer of them and those remaining are doing fewer and fewer categories of medicine.
Choose locations with your eyes open.
When it comes to picking a place for retirement living, I want the opportunities and excitement of a city nearby. I certainly understand others have no interest in museums, art galleries, educational opportunities, activity/hobby groups, or similar. Do, however, consider healthcare. It is not difficult to find rural living near cities.
Since retirees continue to flock there, medical services will probably follow.
Young physicians tend to have children and want to live where there are resources for families, whereas this town has closed a couple of schools in recent years for lack of students.
I am over 65 and grew up in Central Texas south of Austin in very, very small town---we only had a blinking traffic light at the main intersection in the town...
We had no doctor there--the closest ones were 10 miles in either direction --
One town might have still had a hospital back then and one did not...
My sister and I were helping our dad one Saturday when he worked at our local IGA store--
She was carrying out a 6 pack of glass-bottle 7Ups and one exploded in the carton...
The neck of the bottle splintered and shot up her hand...
It actually cut her artery---blood was pumping out 4 inches above her palm...
My dad had been a medic in WW2--that was the only reason she lived...
Someone in the store (no cell phones in the 50s) called the local constable--
My dad wrapped his store apron and some towels around her hand--trying to grip it tight enough to stop the arterial flow--
And the Constable drove us--my dad and me--to the town where our doctor was--I could see the speedometer and it was clocked at 90--scary...
He used his radio to get the city police to find the doctor and we met him at his office--no hospital--no nurse even...
The doctor had to deal with my sister's problem by himself--
I was sitting outside the exam room and can remember her screaming and screaming
Every time he would try to shoot anesthetic into her hand, the blood would wash it out...
She had so many stitches---like 50 inside and out--maybe more...
Have always been conscious of being "away" from medical care since then...
Great story. We just dont have doctors like that much anymore.
We have too many specialists, too many insurance companies, regulations blah blah..
ANd, people generally dont even know how to take care of themselves.. Basic home remedies..
The compromise is the small(er) town not too far from the large city.
You get to define what "not too far" means to YOU.
But there are fewer and fewer of them and those remaining are doing fewer and fewer categories of medicine.
Choose locations with your eyes open.
When I lived in Indiana, you could find rural towns <1 hr outside the city with their own hospitals, and obviously you could go to the city for larger issues. IMo, that is ideal.
My parents retired to the mountains of NC, with their home nestled in 29 acres. They had owned the property for 20 years before retirement. It was a gorgeous setting with great memories for both them and us. After Dad had back surgery, he realized Mom would not be able to take care of the property by herself and would be isolated on a 1/2 mile driveway to the road. They did a 180 and moved to a condo in Asheville, enjoyed that, but finally moved back to their hometown, where they grew up but had not lived in for over 40 years.
The years in the mountains were their favorites, they were young retirees and loved the mountains and their neighbors. They travelled and enjoyed life. More than once, they would hop in the car and drive to NY where I would find them sitting on my front porch swing waiting for us to get home from work. They would stay a couple of days enjoying our mountains and NYC and then be off. They were carefree, adventuresome and happy, which is the way I love to remember them.
Those memories got them through growing older and seeing all the same age friends and family in their hometown die until they were the last ones standing. They had great medical care within reasonable distance and most likely lived longer because of that. Dad died last year at the age of 92 and Mom lives in a CCCR now.
I'm glad they didn't miss out on the best years of their lives because they wanted to live close to good medical care. Be careful of hanging on too tightly to life and pushing dreams aside, you may live longer, but at what cost?
My parents retired to the mountains of NC, with their home nestled in 29 acres. They had owned the property for 20 years before retirement. It was a gorgeous setting with great memories for both them and us. After Dad had back surgery, he realized Mom would not be able to take care of the property by herself and would be isolated on a 1/2 mile driveway to the road. They did a 180 and moved to a condo in Asheville, enjoyed that, but finally moved back to their hometown, where they grew up but had not lived in for over 40 years.
The years in the mountains were their favorites, they were young retirees and loved the mountains and their neighbors. They travelled and enjoyed life. More than once, they would hop in the car and drive to NY where I would find them sitting on my front porch swing waiting for us to get home from work. They would stay a couple of days enjoying our mountains and NYC and then be off. They were carefree and happy, which is the way I love to remember them.
Those memories got them through growing older and seeing all their friends and family their age die until they were the last ones standing. They had great medical care within reasonable distance and most likely lived longer because of that. Dad died last year at the age of 92 and Mom lives in a CCCR now.
I'm glad they didn't miss out on the best years of their lives because they wanted to live close to good medical care. Be careful of hanging on too tightly to life and pushing dreams aside, you may live longer, but at what cost?
That's a wonderful example. Your parents sound like great people.
The thing is too, living near a great hospital doesn't guarantee you'll live longer or have a happier life in your senior years. We're all going to die regardless of the hospital's location. Many people just die immediately without any chance of recovering in a hospital or having the best doctors. Not everyone gets cancer or a prolonged illness. Carrie Fisher is a prime example and she was still young. She had the best medical care and hospital and that didn't make any difference.
So, you're going to live in a place you don't like, probably can't well afford in order to have that great hospital 10 minutes away when there's a decent chance you won't be using it anyway.
Last edited by marino760; 04-13-2017 at 08:26 AM..
I live in a beach town, with excellent healthcare, it's full of retirees that are pretty happy with the facilities , EMT's, fire, police, shopping, and even a great airport.
ON the Beach
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