You did your homework. You saved well and have just enough to give you a nice middle-class living for the rest of your natural life. Think again. The insurance companies have it in for you. They want your last dime. According to the pundits, the average American over sixty-five on Medicare will spend an average of $200,000 in supplemental medical expenses before he or she dies and will spend more in the last six months of life than in their entire life before that combined.
The insurance companies know that, and if you plan to retire during the years of fifty to sixty-five, you can expect to pay between $500 and $1,000 per person just for health insurance before reaching sixty-five. By the time you are fifty, the doctors most likely have you on some sort of blood pressure or cholesterol medication which could result in your not being able to buy insurance at all. At the very least, the insurance companies may determine that you have a pre-existing condition and eliminate coverage for anything related to that.
I met my charming Scottish husband while working overseas. He’s sixty-five. Because he’s not a U.S. citizen, he cannot get Medicare on my work history. He must have lived in the U.S. for five years and I will have to be at least sixty-two before he can qualify for Medicare through me. To qualify through his own work history, he needs to have worked in the States for ten years. The major companies sell Medicare supplements for folks over sixty-five, but don’t have full policies for those people not on Medicare. In addition, he cannot buy insurance from the likes of United Health Care, Humana, or Aetna because they don’t offer policies for folks over sixty-five who are not on Medicare, at any price.
Thus my husband has to work full time just to be covered by insurance if we plan to live out our lives in our glorious USA. Other options are to live in the UK or in any other European country that is part of the European community. The National Health Service in the UK is inconsistent in quality according to where you live. Naturally, emergencies and life-threatening medical care takes top priority. They do a pretty good job and more humanely, so I’m told.
We have friends who have retired in France. According to them, the French government picks up about 70 percent of health care expenses, and for about $40 per month, one can buy insurance for the remaining 30 percent. Many other folks go to less developed countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, or Ecuador. However, I want to live in my own country in my advancing years. I’ve made the full circle of adventure abroad and there’s no place like home.
There is no solution that is acceptable. One shouldn’t have to base one’s life on insurance, but we have to if we want to live here in the United States. The AARP and other lobbyists are trying to out-lobby the insurance companies, but the latter has achieved financial and political power that is carefully concealed from the general public. We should all make our voices heard and see that America spends taxpayers’ money to see that all legal residents and citizens have adequate health care. Folks with more money can afford a higher level of routine care, but medical attention in life and death situations should be equitable without regard for ability to pay.