I was just reading an e-mail I received from someone looking forward to their retirement, which is coming up very soon for them.  Their major concern is the same as most of us… the cost of their health insurance until Medicare takes over, and then, what in the world is this supplemental insurance we keep hearing about?

The same as a lot of us, he is older by a few years, than she.  So once he retires, they both face the possibility of losing the medical insurance he is carrying now.  If he is 65 when he retires, then he’s covered… Medicare.  But, she may still be faced with paying what I consider exorbitant insurance rates.  Same problem as Dick and I ran into.  And believe me, that can eat into your savings.

My husband, Dick, retired at 62 so we had approximately 3 years of paying right around $800 a month for our medical coverage.  We were absolutely thrilled when Dick finally reached the golden age of 65 and… Medicare!  And of course my insurance costs still stayed skyhigh until I also turned 65, 4 years later.

How do you get around paying those exorbitant insurance rates before Medicare takes over,  I don’t know… we never found a way around it.  Of course, if neither of you are working and don’t have a job to be responsible for, you can move to Mexico.  The only hitch here being, pre-existing conditions may cause you to be turned down for private insurance in Mexico.  Even the national insurance requires certain conditions be met.  So we scrimped and saved and made it through a stressful time.

Now, since Dick and I were faced with these costs, Dick retiring from his stressful job because of his health problem and me not working because I’ve always been a stay-at-home Mom, we had pretty good impetus when Dick finally turned 65 to search diligently for the very best Medicare supplemental we could find.  As we were in the states, due to Dick’s pre-existing condition, which limits our time in Mexico, many, many hours were spent searching on the Internet and attending informational seminars put on by the regional insurance companies.

We got such an education.It seems every company promised they were the best… sort of reminded us of timeshare presentations… but this time we needed to buy their product.   After making charts and graphs and trying to think of every question that was pertinent and getting answers on the phone, at the seminars, from friends, we finally decided upon what sounded the best.  Our plan has a zero, monthly payment for our supplemental insurance.  I guess we’re very fortunate in this area to have supplemental insurance such as this offered to us.

I know my sister in Ohio is paying what I consider a large amount for her supplemental insurance… she’s four years older than I… but I guess there’s no other plan offered in her area that is as good as ours.  She and her husband have excellent coverage, but they have to travel miles to mediocre facilities for treatment. 

As you can see we have different opinions on many things.  When we had kids in school and we were in the process of moving, the first thing we checked out were schools.  Now that we are retired, medical costs and coverage and facilities are a prime concern. I remember when we were originally searching for a place that we would love to retire to, thinking Belize would be a little Paradise. 

Then one day I got an e-mail back from a gentleman I had been corresponding with and he had experienced Belize personally.  His response to my query about medical facilities was “primitive”.  Really put a quick end to my dreams about having Howler Monkeys in our trees, Jaguars, Ocolet and Puma in our back yard!  I would rather have a doctor living in my vicinity.

Now it would be wonderful to think that none of us are going to need doctors, but face it… we’re not getting younger and it’s great to have someone who can help us out in our time of trouble. 

Just a matter of fact, since we have retired, I’ve had a torn Achilles repair of my right leg,  my second back operation, I just went through the cancer under the fingernail bit -yes I know that’s very unusual, and it’s doing great now, and just about three weeks ago.  I had my last knee’s torn meniscus repaired.

Maybe by now you’re thinking I should be a little bit more careful… that’s what Dick says… but hey….  I don’t want to miss out on anything.  I am walking a bit more carefully right now however.

So anyway folks, I guess my message is this is something you are going to have to plan for too.  And when you finally get that magical birthday…maybe the big 65… there are a lot of decisions you’re going to have to make. 

Hopefully you too will be fortunate enough to live in an area that offers little or nothing  a month for your supplemental insurance.  It may take a lot of checking out, but it’s certainly worth it.