I guess I don’t fully understand the healthcare issue, for higher income folk. What is it? After you turn 65, you get Medicare and you can buy some very comprehensive supplemental policies, to get extremely good health insurance. I can understand for people who have little money, why needing free healthcare would be important, but otherwise, what’s the point? Can you really get so much better healthcare in many other countries? Or just free healthcare? Are other countries going to treat you with exotic, expensive and rare treatments for free? I’d think if it’s “free”, it’s more unlikely that those treatments will even be available to people.
Are you sure you are going to be able to get that extreme level of treatment in another country?
You have a choice not to undergo hundreds of thousands of dollars in chemo if you get cancer, but I wonder if countries with socialized medicine even have the option.
What do those other countries provide that Medicare doesn’t?
@busdriver11, it’s the taking care…
24 hour in home care runs $350 to $670 a day around here. We could be talking $200,000 a year. (That is what my brother’s father in law pays… $200,000 a year).
Nursing home care costs about $150,000.
A boarding care place costs around $90,000.
Assisted living…$50,000 to $ $100,000 a year.
As I said, there are up and downsides to this, but don’t be fooled – there are places outside the U.S. with excellent healthcare that are not third-world countries. And as @doschicos mentioned, it may not be just healthcare that makes living abroad a better choice for us. Not trying to convince anyone of any solution, just saying that we have a serious problem in this country where healthcare, like education, has become very elitist. We’re only considering this option because we can, many others can’t.
@ChoatieMom Have you and your hubby visited Cuenca yet? I think my husband and I would like to live in multiple places first for 3-6 months each to get a feel for the different places and how we like them.
"@busdriver11, it’s the taking care…
24 hour in home care runs $350 to $700 a day around here. We could be talking $200,000 a year. (That is what my brother’s father in law pays… $200,000 a year).
Nursing home care costs about $150,000.
A boarding care place costs around $90,000.
Assisted living…$50,000 to $ $100,000 a year"
Okay, there’s another high cost of living in SF! I’m sure it’s much cheaper in most places in the country, while not cheap. Definitely cheaper around here.
However, is all this provided in other countries for free/low cost? And is it excellent care? Certainly Medicaid and veterans hospitals will provide much of this for low income people here. And if that is a huge concern, seems that long term care insurance would be worth considering.
@doschicos – that’s how we plan to spend our early retirement years (starting next year). We will be traveling to some of these places for a few months each summer to try them out.
My brother’s father in law lives in Southern California. 
It is way cheaper to take care of the elderly in other countries.
I think it would cost around $30,000 a year in the Philippines for 24 hour in home care. Might be less. Don’t quote my quote.
$25 an hour times 24 hours is $600 a day. $600 a day adds up to more than $200,000 a year.
I was offered a quote of $350 a day to take care of my dad. No agency. That is still approximately $125,000 a year.
Medicaid takes over when you are broke. I think you can keep your house. I don’t know about medicaid and in home care. You might have to go to a facility that takes medicaid.
@ChoatieMom Where I live, I’d rather escape the winters than my summer and travel to someplace else’s summer.
Scouting airbnb and vrbo is kind of fun. 
@doschicos and @ChoatieMom , while it isn’t what we’re currently considering, I don’t think that the benefits of being in a “near time zone” are to be ignored. For example, when DW recently took a trip to India and Singapore, we could talk to each other, but we were out of synch, with one of us just having gotten up and the other ready for bed. It’s okay for a week or two, but I wouldn’t want to stay in touch with my kids that way.
Ecuador solves that problem, the Galapagos are near, and they use USD for currency. Bingo!
Yes, @IxnayBob, those are some upsides for Ecuador. However, we have only one child, and he is in the military, so time zones won’t figure into it for us.
That’s crazy expensive, dstark. We have an elder care lawyer who focuses on these things, and talks about how much cheaper it can be to downsize, or fix your home so you can live there long term, as opposed to a nursing home. We have family group homes out here that are considerably cheaper than many options. They take several seniors who can at least move around, and it’s like living at home, with friends. Who are a little demented… 
Are you considering demographics as part of the decision-making?
For example, Europe is aging rapidly - in 30 years more than 1/3 the population will be over 65, and the number of workers (i.e., taxpayers) per retired person will dwindle to around 1.5 from 4 today. How are these countries going to be able to maintain their medical/social programs or nursing home programs in the face of these numbers?
@busdriver11, How much are those family group homes? I was seeing quotes of $6,000-$7,000 a month in Santa Rosa…50 miles north of SF.
My mom has somebody who helps her in her home 15 hours a week. $25 an hour. That’s $375 a week. Approximately $18750 a year in Santa Rosa.
Santa Rosa is supposed to be 40 percent cheaper than SF. That is almost all housing. Maybe Santa Rosa is 1 to 10 percent cheaper on things that don’t include housing.
I think the one my Grandmother is in is 2-3K pet month. I think. Very good deal, and a good living for the woman who provides it, for many pleasant, rather demented seniors!
@busdriver11, Did I read that right? $2,000 to $3,000?
Your grandmother is living in a house with 4 to 9 others and 2 helpers 24 hours a day? Why am I guessing? How many people live with your grandmother and how many helpers are there? Is your grandmother in Seattle?
My mother in law is checking out similar places today. I am curious to see what the prices are.
Did your elder care lawyer talk about the pros and cons of downsizing? What are they?
@busdriver11,
I think your numbers are off or we are talking about different things.
Maybe not…
I am posting this for me. 
http://www.seniorhomes.com/c/ca/san-francisco/assisted-living/
http://www.seniorhomes.com/c/wa/seattle/assisted-living/
I plan to remain in the US, in HI. It is where all our friends and family are. I am pretty sure we can maintain a good quality of life and pay for whatever care we need. We have great medical insurance and Medicare will help as well.
I don’t know if I remembered the cost correctly, but I’ll verify it with my mom. It’s south of Seattle, in a lower cost area near the airport (not the best area, but okay). One Hispanic lady owns the home and I think one or two people help, probably her children. Less than ten people, and I think she makes a good living doing it, but doesn’t get rich. None of the residents are bedridden, and I don’t think they generally need help at night, so not 24 hours a day work. It’s called an adult group family home, or something like that.
The guy who owns the law firm has a radio show, and I listen to him now and then. He says that most people would like to stay at home, and many homes can be remodeled so elderly can remain there. Hiring home care is far cheaper than assisted living/nursing homes and you can use many government benefits to help pay if you qualify. He didn’t talk about any cons, that I can remember.
Ok. Thanks.