Retirement

[MarcRosie]

Hi,

 

Don't know if this is where such a question should be posted but here goes.

 

Will be retiring in a couple years and the plan is to live in China for the most part. When I get really old to just live there. Was wondering if anyone has information about health/medical insurance while living there. I'm assuming insurance you have here in the States will not do any good in China. Medicare? AARP? Any info would be greatly appreciated! Just want to make sure I have coverage. Wife's insurance there I don't think will cover me. But as I said, any help or thoughts would be great.

 

THANKS and have a great day!

 

Marc

[Randy W]

Insurance for expats is available and cheap, but gets more expensive with age, and limited coverage. Medical expenses are also very cheap, usually within what you might expect between co-pays and deductibles in the U.S. Your wife is probably the best source of information for your area. Yes, you'll need a separate policy from hers.

 

I doubt that there's any western insurance that would make payments to a Chinese provider, except for special purpose Expat insurance.

 

Check specific policies to see if they will reimburse Chinese medical expenses.

 

Expat coverage for Western hospitals, either in China, or back home, would be much more expensive, as is western medicine.

 

I rely on my wife to handle all that stuff, so I can't help you much with specifics. She says that as you "get really old", insurance "gets really expensive" - that's where I'm headed, myself.

Edited October 18, 2016 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Medicare, of course, won't cover you while in China. You'll need to decide whether the time you spend in the States would justify paying for the Part B (Medical Insurance).

 

I'm just now looking at my "Welcome to Medicare!" letter. The Part A (Hospital Insurance) is free, both Part A and Part B are automatic - you will need to turn down Part B if you don't want it.

 

You are exempt from the Affordable Care Act, as long as you spend less than one month every year in the U.S.

[amberjack1234]

My Federal Blue Cross and Blue Shield will cover me for 80% and the wife while we are in China. This is not individual state or company BC/BS though. I don't know how they swing. What the Chinese want you to do is pay up front first (of course) and then file with BC/BS and let them reimburse you. If course you have to be with them for at least 5 years before you retire for them to keep you after you retire.

[ciao]

In my experience (from 8 years of living in China), local medical care is inexpensive, but the quality is highly variable. If you're lucky, you can find good doctors. At the other end of the bell curve, you will find doctors who are just plain irresponsible and incompetent, and (more commonly) ones who are so overworked that they can't possibly provide good care.

 

Medical techniques in China are a few years behind US, Europe, Japan. There are some procedures that they don't perform because they simply don't know how. This might be good or bad -- it's not necessarily a good idea to be on the bleeding edge of medical research. And the basic ideas of ancient (traditional) Chinese medicine seem preferable to western ones, anyway, in some ways.

 

If you're going to have surgery, it's well known that you have to give "gifts" to the surgeon and anesthesiologist to help things go smoothly. Stuff like that scares me to death.

 

For me, finding good medical care is the single largest problem with living in China. I'm 65 years old, but (for now) I'm very healthy. I definitely would not want to be here when I get older and body parts start to wear out.

 

Of course, I represent a sample of size 1. Others might well have had different experiences.