Portugal has been the retirement plan for my wife and me since we spent time there six years ago. We’re from Southern California, so the weather feels similar,

Portugal has been the retirement plan for my wife and me since we spent time there six years ago. We’re from Southern California, so the weather feels similar, it’s beautiful, and the people were super nice. But the key differentiator was health care. We have issues that require multiple medications, and while there we needed refills. The person renting to us said to go to the ER, so we did. We were with a doctor in twenty minutes, who asked us why we had come. We said we had double-checked with the landlord and he insisted that was the right course to take. The doctor said they could have been busy and we would have had to wait, but in any case she was happy to write that refills. All up it took under half an hour and cost under $30. We’ve been to the ER multiple times in the US and never seen a doctor in less than an hour (except when I had a motorcycle accident, but that’s a different circumstance entirely). And of course no ER visit in the US costs less than thousands of $$$. And filling the prescriptions cost less than the copay in the US. Retirement is some time away, so I hope the wealthy don’t screw it up for us :-/