For retiring Americans, health care can truly be a good reason not to retire abroad.
Many people can improve their quality of life by moving overseas, but not everyone, and some countries are better choices for health care than others.
Why is health care such a bugaboo?
Quality of care abroad, health insurance access, and lack of access to Medicare are the biggest issues.
Some countries do not have a standard of medical care that would be acceptable to Americans. Cambodia comes to mind. You might have a pleasant life there if you never got sick, but if your health took a turn, you would need to evacuate to Thailand pronto. That (and the fact that you cannot receive Social Security checks if you are residing in Cambodia) are some great reasons why Cambodia is not a realistic choice for Americans retiring abroad.
Other countries have acceptable or even excellent health care available, but then the question becomes: how expensive is it, can you afford it, or buy insurance that will cover you?
The rub for people as they get older is that Medicare will not help you if are an American living abroad. That is a big reason that people choose to retire in Mexico. Those in nearby Mexico often come home for Medicare health care, especially for treatment of serious illnesses.
So, in looking around at countries to consider for overseas retirement, you will want to look at your own situation, age, health, family medical history, financial resources, risk tolerance, and preexisting conditions (which may be excluded or restricted in getting insurance). It is advisable to research what kinds of insurance you are going to be able to buy in your retirement country and how much it costs. In some countries, retired Americans can even apply for access to the local nationalized heath system.
There are people living abroad who choose to live without health insurance and self insure. To do this, they save the money they would have paid for an insurance policy into a personal account to be used as needed for medical expenses. This risky method can work for some people in countries that offer quality medical care that can be accessed for a fraction of US price levels, but serious illnesses could still break the bank and force the retiree to move back to the US.
One other detail to think about when shopping for expat health insurance is whether you want the policy to cover you when you are back visiting the USA. Expat health insurance policies that cover you abroad but not in the US are always considerably less expensive, for obvious reasons.
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Health Care Abroad,
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