sequim wa verses long beach wa (Seattle, Vancouver: low income, apartment, house)

[restless in woodland wa]

hi first i know i am going back and fourth here as i first said i was moving to sequim and know long beach.
how ever it is looking like the house thing is not going to work out and instead i will be moving into another low income apartment as i live on ssd disabilty and my income is only $733 a month.
so with this said i am looking for pros/cons of both from people that acutatly live in these 2 towns.
yet i have allot of info from people that live part time in long beach and a small amount from people that live there but no really any on sequim itself other than the weather.
how ever none of them have health issuses as i do.
so i am trying to detrimine buy asking people that live in these 2 towns which one would be best for a person with severe astma major chonic back pain and low income as i myself have both of these medical issuses to deal with as well as low income.
next after doing a ton of research as well as going to the beach/coast nerely every summer since i was about 12 i have decided that either sequim wa are long beach wa is were i would like to live and hopefully will be with in the next year are so.
further more i am basicly ready to move at this point.
but there is a strong possiblity i am going to have to have another major back sugery and should know buy the first of the year weather i have to are not.
if the sugery does happen it will delay my move buy a few months.
how ever it will not prevent my move so i am trying to find all i can about both cities/towns to see which one would suit me best because i really only want to move once as i plan on hopefully never moving again.
lastly i am a brone and raized washingtonain and love wa state beter than any other state i have bin to are research on the net and city data.
thanks restless in woodland wa

[NWbyNW]

Sequim would probably be a better choice for convenience and healthcare. Sequim has a lot of new shopping developments and a bus line if you would use that. Major chain stores are located in the town, and it is pretty easy to go along the sidewalk to these places if you please. Things the hospital in Sequim or Port Angeles can't do are a shorter drive to Seattle, about an hour and 45 minutes. There would be more to do in Sequim and more services are built up for handicap needs. It would also be cheaper to live in Sequim, though the beach lifestyle you would probably hope for in Long Beach, will not be in Sequim. The beaches here are rocky, and a bit of a drive from Seqium proper.

Long Beach is peaceful, rural for the most part, and coastal. Streets are not that busy unless during tourist season, and still, only the main roads are busy. There is a hospital in nearby Ilwaco, but all major stuff would have to be done elsewhere, which might mean many trips to larger hospitals in Seattle or Vancouver, WA. That hospital was recently built up and very nice on the outside now, but still a very small hospital. Long Beach has a few cool events throughout the years like the kite festival, and miles and miles of sandy beach.

[rainforest338]

Sequim actually has a good deal of health care facilities for the size. It also has lots of box stores that make shopping on a budget and comparison shopping easy. The beaches in the area tend to be on the smaller side or rocky, but you can find a few around--Port Williams or Cline spit or drive out to Salt Creek. The area is outgrowing(?) itself right now. Traffic can really surprise you during the day (yes, I know it's not comparable to Seattle traffic). The town basically turns into a ghost town after the sunsets, though. Still plenty of affordable housing in Sequim--I know that mean/median prices look high, but that is mostly due to the large number of new construction mcmansions really skewing the numbers. But the older, smaller places are available.
Sequim is a bit of a farm/garden town that will get little rain in summer months--so it can get a little dusty with pollen--not sure how that will affect allergies/asthma.
As far as cons go, the area seems to get a lot of the troublemakers from other towns due to be chased off by law enforcement, yuppy development, high city prices, etc. So there is kind of a 'thug' population within the community. They usually only rotate around in their own little circle, but burglaries are up about 25% from last year.

[mikejody]

There is not one doctor accepting new patients in Sequim (as of 7/15/13), and there is no hospital in Sequim, so you would need to go to Port Angeles for both of these.

[Tiger108]

Originally Posted by mikejody

There is not one doctor accepting new patients in Sequim (as of 7/15/13), and there is no hospital in Sequim, so you would need to go to Port Angeles for both of these.

Doesn't the Olympic Medical Center have a branch in Sequim? That's only for cancer? Looks like about 1/2 hour drive to Port Angeles, without traffic. We did hit bad traffic in the afternoon in Port Angeles, especially along 101 (being widened). Downtown Sequim also had a surprising amount of traffic, though just in the very small central core, with lots of people stopping at the small stores.

[Dendrite]

Originally Posted by Tiger108

Doesn't the Olympic Medical Center have a branch in Sequim?

Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles offers specialty medical clinics (cardiology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, orthopedics) in Sequim through OMP (Olympic Medical Physicians).

mikejody is correct in his preceding post, I don't know of any primary care physicians in the area who are accepting new patients.

Originally Posted by Tiger108

We did hit bad traffic in the afternoon in Port Angeles, especially along 101 (being widened). Downtown Sequim also had a surprising amount of traffic, though just in the very small central core, with lots of people stopping at the small stores.

This is "tourist season" time of the year on the peninsula. Traffic will begin to thin out some after the Labor Day weekend. But the Hwy 101 road construction you mentioned Tiger108 will continue to bottleneck traffic until it's completed.

[rantiquity]

Originally Posted by Dendrite

Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles offers specialty medical clinics (cardiology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, orthopedics) in Sequim through OMP (Olympic Medical Physicians).

mikejody is correct in his preceding post, I don't know of any primary care physicians in the area who are accepting new patients.

Suggest you check out the Jamestown medical clinic which is just behind the OMP.