4 ms·
> She's been very sick for a long time and publicly struggling with enormous medical expenses (there have been various crowdfunding efforts over the years and s
by gcanyon 3y ago
> She's been very sick for a long time and publicly struggling with enormous medical expenses (there have been various crowdfunding efforts over the years and she had to sell her `molly.com` domain to pay for treatment).
My wife and I were both born in the U.S. and have lived here most of our lives; we love this place. The above is why we have zero intention to retire here.
- samstave 3y agoNorway? Where retire?
- bibanez 3y agoYou can find many places with good QOL that are cheaper, like Spain. That said, Norway's pension fund is very attractive...
- throwaway-blaze 3y agoTaxes in Spain are quite high, even by comparison with other EU states. And it is not easy to get residency for long periods of time unless you have significant financial resources.
- pnutjam 3y agoShe died at 60, so no eligibility for Medicare or Social Security. That's a nightmare scenario in the good old US of A. RIP
- weinzierl 3y agoI understand you, but health care is expensive everywhere. The difference between the US and many other countries is in the distribution of this cost. So, for example, if a young person from the US or elsewhere comes to Germany to study they will get health care basically for free. I think (and I might be wrong) if you move to Germany as retiree the public health care system would not be open to you. You could choose a private insurance but, very much like in the US, the premiums depend on age and existing preconditions. I cannot tell if this would be cheaper than in the US, but I doubt that it could be much cheaper. Also, I think it would be similar in most other EU countries. Of course you could move to a country with significantly lower living standards to save on medical cost, but then you would increase your likelihood of medical issues and not really gain any real advantage.
- microtherion 3y agoI'm not German myself, but I'm pretty sure the public health care system is open to all legal residents, no matter what age they move there. But like most countries, there are significant hurdles to immigration, and they would be even higher for somebody in retirement age.
- weinzierl 3y agoI am indeed German and to the best of my knowledge our health care system is not open to all legal residents. I worded it carefully above, because it is complicated and there might be loopholes, but in general a person older than 55 that has never been in the German health system will not get in.
- mongol 3y agoWhat if they are EU citizens?
- weinzierl 3y agoDoesn't matter. Even if you are a German citizen and by 55 you've never been in the health system you're out of luck.
- lfittl 3y agoIn the above described scenario (US-based retiree moving to Germany), its likely the social security totalization treaty applies, giving them access to the health system: https://www.ssa.gov/international/Agreement_Pamphlets/germany.html https://www.ssa.gov/international/Agreement_Pamphlets/german...
- weinzierl 3y agoThis is about social security and has nothing to with health care. In fact it says: "Although the agreement between the United States and Germany allows the Social Security Administration to count your German credits to help you qualify for U.S. retirement, disability or survivor benefits, the agreement doesn’t cover Medicare benefits. As a result, we cannot count your credits in Germany to establish entitlement to free Medicare hospital insurance." There might be other loopholes though.