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Medical/dental was not a factor but location and house. As it turned out we are in a very good location for healthcare with everything within 10-20 miles. Our primary schedules on the minute, often nurses call back and handle situations thus not requiring a visit. Referrals take 24 hours and are scheduled through primary generally within 48 hours as do 2nd opinions.
As people age, they're more likely to have medical needs. The local system here is woefully inadequate for anything other than the most basic of care. How big of a factor was the local medical system in your selection of an area?
Not a bit I was looking more to the cost of the apartment rent and subsidies instead of healthcare. Plus entertainment venues, church and shopping. However looking at the area I'm only 3 mi away from the memorial hospital when I get up to Yakima.
Surprisingly it's quite high level for trauma. It is a level III adult and pediatric trauma center, with a 34-bed emergency department and a 27-bed critical care unit. The hospital provides birthing services, a neonatal intensive care unit, a pediatrics unit, and cancer services.
After reading that I feel I'll be in good hands should anything unfortunate happen to me.
It was a factor when we relocated to this rural area over a decade ago, but not the most important factor. We were still working & healthy & at the time, this area had decent medical care.
I couldn’t look in a crystal ball & learn that the medical care here, like in other rural areas, would turn to **** & that we would have some of the health issues that we now do. Now we often have to take a long journey into the Big City for a lot of health care. It gets exhausting to do that.
But, if we had stayed in the major metro, expensive area that we moved from, the healthcare professionals that we used were aging out & retiring, anyway. Nothing in life stays the same, ya know?
If someone was looking at my area, say, five years ago, there are rural places that did have a decent community hospital that could service simple needs, with more specialist care available in Kingsport or Bristol. Today, some of those rural hospitals have closed outright, some have been repurposed into nursing or rehab facilities, with most of the rest performing poorly financially and at risk of eventual closure.
There are many areas of southwest VA that might have been an hour or so from a decent hospital that are now and hour and a half to two hours away. With the other two tertiary hospitals in the area going down the toilet, that puts even more stress on the remaining one, which was already short of staff and overwhelmed with patients prior to the merger then COVID. Those staffing issues have gotten worse since then - at one point, that hospital was on its third CEO in as many years.
You also have to consider the demographics of this area. Tons of patients have no insurance and present to EDs for minor ailments which would normally be handled by a PCP or an urgent care, but the ED cannot turn them away. All those people flooding EDs leads to people like my grandmother with a serious problem stuck in waiting rooms for hours. Specialists aren't going to want to relocate to an area where relatively few people have well-paying corporate insurance, and many are on Medicaid.
It's kind of a doom loop. I feel really bad for people who bought here when conditions were different and are kind of left scrambling now to find better now. I have great insurance, can take the time off to drive as needed, etc., but a lot of people don't have that ability.
How big of a factor was the local healthcare system in selecting an area to retire to?
For us, it was a minor factor.
When talking among other military retirees, it is a common thought that they wish to locate near a military base. Because they view bases as being where all of their 'services' as being located.
After I retired, and then moved back stateside again, we settled near a base.
Any retiree that lives within a certain radius of a military base, is then required to seek medical care on-base. We played that game for a few years. Active Duty personnel are given priority and they can get appointments, retirees can not. We go into the hospital, check-in, and we wait for any canceled appointments. When there is an unscheduled opening then a retiree can be seen.
You might be seen on the same day, or you may have to sit in the waiting room for multiple days waiting for an opening.
One time I sat in the waiting room from 8am until closing, after all the day shift people had gone home. The night shift people came on duty and as they began cleaning the waiting room, they were surprised to see me sitting there waiting. An HM Corpsman took pity on me and I was seen that evening.
After that I learned that if I were to live outside of their imaginary radius then I would qualify for health insurance to cover us.
Once I moved away from any military bases, suddenly we could be treated by MD doctors, no longer just the HM corpsmen and medics, but real doctors who have been through medical school.
When talking among other military retirees, it is a common thought that they wish to locate near a military base. Because they view bases as being where all of their 'services' as being located.
After I retired, and then moved back stateside again, we settled near a base.
Any retiree that lives within a certain radius of a military base, is then required to seek medical care on-base. We played that game for a few years. Active Duty personnel are given priority and they can get appointments, retirees can not. We go into the hospital, check-in, and we wait for any canceled appointments. When there is an unscheduled opening then a retiree can be seen.
You might be seen on the same day, or you may have to sit in the waiting room for multiple days waiting for an opening.
One time I sat in the waiting room from 8am until closing, after all the day shift people had gone home. The night shift people came on duty and as they began cleaning the waiting room, they were surprised to see me sitting there waiting. An HM Corpsman took pity on me and I was seen that evening.
After that I learned that if I were to live outside of their imaginary radius then I would qualify for health insurance to cover us.
Once I moved away from any military bases, suddenly we could be treated by MD doctors, no longer just the HM corpsmen and medics, but real doctors who have been through medical school.
There is no requirement to seek medical care on base that I know of. If on Medicare that is especially true, can see any provider that takes medicare. Where I am in CA, it is actively discouraged. They want you to use in-network provider for service but not on base. The military clinic off base that is less than 2 miles from my house stopped seeing anyone other than active duty and active duty dependants about 7-8 years ago. They won't even fill a retirees' prescriptions there, have to go to one of the many bases.
In NV, retirees were not allowed on the Nellis AFB during a good portion of COVID lockdown. The military hospital is off base but the main pharmacy is on base - so many retirees were complaining because they had to use the mail service to get medicines and pay that minor charge or go through the VA if eligible.
Wanted to be near a base for Exchange, Commissary, Pharmacy and some other services but not really medical.
There is no requirement to seek medical care on base that I know of.
In my case, this was in 2001.
At that time Tricare would only pay if you lived too far from a base.
Quote:
... If on Medicare that is especially true, can see any provider that takes medicare.
Well yes.
To my knowledge Medicare has never done anything for Mil-Med.
After you retire, then wait another 20+ years to get onto Medicare, then Medicare may help with off-base healthcare
Quote:
... Where I am in CA, it is actively discouraged. They want you to use in-network provider for service but not on base
in-network providers are by definition off base.
Quote:
... In NV, retirees were not allowed on the Nellis AFB during a good portion of COVID lockdown. The military hospital is off base but the main pharmacy is on base - so many retirees were complaining because they had to use the mail service to get medicines and pay that minor charge or go through the VA if eligible.
My health insurance includes its own mail-order pharmacy [free of charge].
I would want to assure rapid stroke intervention, otherwise I don't really care. Mobile stroke units (big trucks that incorporate a CT scanner, medical staff, and everything needed for immediate treatment except embolectomy - but they can drive to the hospital for embolectomy) may make geography irrelevant in the future as far as stroke treatment goes, though mobile stroke units are expensive.
I have lived for 31 years, and will be also growing old, in Boston, so no concern about access to medical care at home :-). But I do continue to travel a lot, ie, a far greater concern is what if something major happens acutely when I'm away of home. Of course, I always have travel insurance, but still.
Yeah Doc, I just became aware of this scenario and was telling friends about it. The two hour window for the clot busting drug for stroke victims.... But, you have lived 61 years (not 31) -- maybe time for a checkup -- LOL
A friend of mine wanted to move 60 miles away into the Columbia Gorge. She was told that her Medicare/Insurance would not cover her out in that zip code. I'm sure they are not going to pay for Medivac flights and such so you can go live out the dreams of your youth in old age. That's going to be on you. So, she continues to stay put. So, there's That.
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