Winter Texan numbers dropping in the Valley

qtla9111 wrote:

John & Angela wrote:
Not going to wade into the fray but just a correction. Canadian health care covers a Canadian anywhere in the world but only up to the amount that the procedure would cost in Canada. As the cost of procedures in the US is higher than Canada many Canadians choose to purchase supplemental insurance to cover the difference. However for those that travel to other country's with comparable procedural and hospitalization costs there is no need to purchase supplemental insurance or if they do it is considerably cheaper as long as the individual doesn't enter the US. An example would be a Canadian snowbirding in Spain. If they have a massive heart attack and need a bypass the cost is roughly the same as Canada's. The Canadian would pay the bill and submit it to their provincial health care provider. A bypass operation and 19 day hospital stay in Spain is about 9200 dollars. We have been in this situation (not the heart attack thing, something much simpler).

We were surprised at the amount of younger (late fifties) Canadian snowbirds in southern Spain. Comparable weather to SoCal and a very nice country and culture. We have plans of snowbirding in the US on our property in Palm Springs until we are fully retired at 60. ( We still work 5 months of the year. ) At that point we will probably sell our property there and explore other non English speaking destinations. I don't expect we will be buying supplemental insurance then. Nothing against english speaking societies. My hobbies are language and history and the cultural diversity that comes with that.

John, I didn't know that. It would be interesting to see a list of destinations that are frequented by snowbirds other than the southern U.S. and Mexico. I know many people go to Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador.

Also, why is the Canadian insurance not accepted in the U.S.?

Good morning Chris. It's not accepted because really it's not insurance. It's just a one payer health care system that pays to medical providers but only at a pre prescribed Canadian rate. Eg. If someone has a heart operation in Canada and it costs 10,000 dollars it is paid to the provider in Canada at that prescribed date. If the same procedure is 80,000 in the US it wouldn't be fair to have the Canadian tax payers pay for that operation for the traveller. It is up to the traveller to make up the difference on his own or buy supplemental insurance to cover the difference. I don't like getting into the "my system is better than their system" debate. Just explaining the mechanism of the system.

We enjoy our time at our place in the US. We pay our taxes and try to contribute to society there. We live in a Latino area which we like. It is close enough to home to drive to in a few days and overall we like the American people. But once we are fully retired we will choose alternative long term winter destinations including some of the places you mentioned and of course nuestro querido México. So many interesting and nice places out there. Life's too short to live it all in one place. :).