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when we had the house in the pocono's it was a 30 minute drive just to a hospital . even going out farther still had few choices in all kinds of specialists and medical specialty facilities . certainly not a place we would retire in to unless we had no choice .
just the fact that we can get everywhere easily and cheaply with no car makes retiring where we are with such an extensive transportation network important to us . with diabetic neuropathy in my toes i don't want to count on being able to drive forever .
We had a place in east Tennessee, close to Cumberland Gap national park, out in the weeds. I always felt that, hey, if I can't get to help, I'll just decide it is time for me to cross the rainbow bridge. Hubs felt different about it, and we ended up selling and moving to Florida. Then he died. And, I'm here. Not where I wanted to be, but... such is life.
We live in western North Carolina. We are at 4400 feet. We had a spell this winter where we got 14 inches of snow and there was an area in one of the steepest hills below us that didn't get sun, so it went from snow to ice that didn't clear for almost 2 weeks. We were able to get up and down, but some neighbors weren't. HOWEVER, we take care of each other and make sure if we are going down that we don't need to get something for one of the other neighbors who can't make it. My husband meets the UPS or FedEx drivers and delivers the packages to the neighborhood, since the delivery trucks can't make it up on the icy hill.
My point was - is it common? I live in New England so yes it's common (though our roads get cleared very quickly).
If that is a once every few years (or more) scenario, it's not a deal breaker for me.
Yep, and the quality of the medical care matters, too. When you have a stroke, you have about 60 minutes to get the TPA clot buster injection or you're going to be a vegetable. After 60 minutes, it's far less effective. After 2 1/2 hours, it's pointless. You want a real hospital with a real ER, real ER physicians, CT scan gear, and the good neurologist. Dial 911 in some rural place and start the stopwatch. Welcome to a decade+ in a wheelchair drooling.
Here is where I have problems with these threads. I agree that needing stitches, or in any accident scenario, close proximity is great. For many kinds of serious illness, though, I am not sure it matters.
When my MIL moved in with us, late 80s, she was a vegan, a hiker, and in good overall physical shape. One night in her 90s, she had a stroke in her sleep. We normally heard her stirring at 5:00am, the start of our normal work routine, went to say good morning, but found her unresponsive, and an ambulance took her to the best trauma center available. Only took a few short minutes. She was worked on for hours by surgeons, doctors, and ER staff, but was clinically brain-dead before and after the episode. She was on life support in ICU for a couple of weeks, then on life support in the hospital for a couple of months before she passed. Sounds good on paper, but if the trauma is severe, NO AMOUNT OF GOOD CARE is going to help.
Are we going to move closer to a hospital just to avoid that scenario? Not likely.
Your MIL sounds like she took good care of herself and she lived a healthy, long life until she didn’t. I give you credit for providing a home for her in her old age.
But, when we decide in our mid sixties or earlier how we want to retire, we have to look down a longish road. In my case, I hope to live to see my grandkids be adults. If I have a health crisis, I want to survive, so I can have more time, so I can do this. And I want to do this with my DH who has had many medical procedures since his bypass surgery. Modern medicine has kept him in good shape since 2000, and we both respect the need to have good access.
I know of people who retire to a place, and then after a few years, have to move closer to family, or to an easier place to live. Moving is expensive. It just seems wiser to me to plan for our certain, and ongoing, obsolescence.
But—I do not feel that that there is an absolutely right way to do retirement. Others have other goals and concerns.
My point was - is it common? I live in New England so yes it's common (though our roads get cleared very quickly).
If that is a once every few years (or more) scenario, it's not a deal breaker for me.
It's not a deal breaker for me, either, though it is for some people. Our road is a private road maintained by the HOA (that's really the only reason the HOA exists). But snow removal is not part of what is provided. Instead, some of the neighbors have plows and try to keep the roads up here at the top plowed.
I am not talking about having local access to healthcare, and I am talking about proximity to it. Under your scenario, does 30 minutes driving time make that much of a difference? Personally, I don't think it does. Cancer generally isn't a trauma scenario; and if it becomes one, I don't think minutes matter.
I can get to a quality healthcare facility here in 40 minutes, and when I was in Los Angeles, the same quality healthcare (UCLA Medical Center) was well over an hour by freeway. A few years ago, I had a pericarditis event while working as a contractor in Denver. Fortunately, I was close to quality healthcare, and at 2:00am, was taken by an ambulance 8-10minutes to get to a great hospital. Problem was, I wasn't alone there. I was in ER for two hours before I saw my first physician. I thought I was having a heart attack, and the ER personnel thought so too, and my first treatment was a CT...but that didn't speed up the treatment.
Very few rural places are a 40 minute drive from world class specialists and a Level 1 trauma center. What is this "quality healthcare facility" 40 minutes away? Most regional hospitals that serve rural areas are pretty lousy. Nobody any good wants to work there. The hospitals are teetering because they don't have enough private insurance patients to subsidize Medicaid (which loses money) and Medicare (which barely breaks even).
They are in their early 30s. Picture someone in their early 70s relocating there.
I know people in their 70's and 80's living in rural areas. They're fine! I also know people in their 70's and 80's living in cities and suburbs. They're fine, too! Different strokes for different folks.
One of my neighbors is in his late 70's and is more active than anyone else I know! The guy started running marathons a few years ago for fun. Just because one lives in a rural area doesn't mean that they're a couch potato. Couch potatoes live everywhere.
Very few rural places are a 40 minute drive from world class specialists and a Level 1 trauma center. What is this "quality healthcare facility" 40 minutes away? Most regional hospitals that serve rural areas are pretty lousy. Nobody any good wants to work there. The hospitals are teetering because they don't have enough private insurance patients to subsidize Medicaid (which loses money) and Medicare (which barely breaks even).
In the Midwest, suburbia drops off rapidly into exurbia and then vast rural expanses. Land is cheap, and therefore it is entirely common to find a shopping mall surrounded by McMansions, in the suburbs... and then, 3-5 miles beyond, nothing but corn. So, one could be in "rural" circumstances, and yet fairly close, in terms of driving-time, to the city-center.
This has a positive and a negative side. The positive side is the aforementioned relatively short driving time. City amenities aren't far. The negative side is that the city itself isn't going to be a Boston or a NYC or a Los Angeles. The best medical professionals aren't going to work there. Also, the rural area isn't the homespun traditional rural from a Normal Rockwell painting. For more on that, see below....
Quote:
Originally Posted by goldenlove
...We had a spell this winter where we got 14 inches of snow and there was an area in one of the steepest hills below us that didn't get sun, so it went from snow to ice that didn't clear for almost 2 weeks. We were able to get up and down, but some neighbors weren't. HOWEVER, we take care of each other and make sure if we are going down that we don't need to get something for one of the other neighbors who can't make it. My husband meets the UPS or FedEx drivers and delivers the packages to the neighborhood, since the delivery trucks can't make it up on the icy hill....
These things are highly situational. I live in semi-rural circumstances (typically 5 to 20 acre residences, and a smattering of farms) on the southern end of the Midwest. Most of my neighbors are in their 60s or 70s. They're either retired, or work from home, or commute - in some cases, 60 miles each way, to the "local" big city. Snow is rarely severe, but when it comes, I'm helpless. Most neighbors plow their own driveways with tractors, or rely on massive 4x4 pickups to overcome otherwise impassable paths. One time I had a sign at the entrance to my driveway: "Help, need plow"... and left my phone number. There wasn't a single call. Eventually I dug enough of a path from the garage to the road, that my vehicle could make it. Not one single neighbor responded.
I gather that the standard local model, is for the adult children of the local residents to come to the latter's rescue. Neighbors don't much interact with fellow neighbors. Instead, family comes to visit any given neighbor, and that's the interaction.
It took me exactly 20 minutes to find a new doctor, also 30 miles away. Remember, by highway, that is only a half hour, less than I had to drive in the metropolis.
This. People keep saying it's important to be near a doctor, but if you need a specialist your chances of living near one (or more) in a large city are not great. Unless you can afford to live near downtown, or wherever the best medical center is, you will probably still face a twenty or thirty minute drive in traffic to get to your doctors office. Unless you think you are at serious risk of needing to be whisked to the nearest hospital at the drop of a hat I don't see more of a benefit to living in a city to be 'near' health care.
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