Depressed snowbird housing market - Yuma

moisheh wrote:
Hi J&A: I looked into repatriation insurance. It seems to be alright if you have a serious medical issue. Say a heart attack. But otherwise they don't fly you out without a Dr saying you have to be transported. Some of the non expensive policies do not fly you home. Only to the nearest decent medical facility. For snowbirds some of the insurance companies have a new game. They will not pay any medical costs until you are out of the hospital and have filed all the paperwork. Not a big deal if the costs are say $1000. But what if your bill is $50,000 or more. Not everyone has that amount sitting around in cash! Years ago US Hospitals used to accept Canadian insurance but that seems to have changed.

Moisheh

Hi Moisheh.

I hear ya. I think for this approach you need to be comfortable with coming up with at least in the short term twenty to thirty thousand dollars. So for example if you need a major bypass operation in Spain you need to have the roughly 12000 to 15000 dollars to pay the procedure and hospital bill and then another roughly 5000 to 7000 for an attended plane trip back home. Obviously the medical would be reimbursed by provincial health care but the accompanied plane trip is all your dime. Although I think this would negate some of the more budget imposed snowbirds although I think many would be able to manage the just in case scenario. Let's put it this way. If you are paying even three grand a year in insurance to travel to the US, take that money and stash it away every year you don't need it and within a few years you are ready for an "event". ??