I've been posting for several days not but appears I never introduced myself. I thought I had. I live in West Hollywood, CA and plan to move to SC,AZ the minute I retire. I'll pack up my PT Cruiser, stick the dogs in the backseat, hit the 10 and I'm there. I could retire now but I wouldn't have insurance. So either I wait 5 years for Medicare or figure something else out sooner.
Sad isn't it that the need for health insurance can dictate the time we retire, the jobs we take, whether or not we can be self employed. Someday that will change, just not today. I understand where you're at Cynthia, both my husband and I were self employed and bought our own insurance....we finally retired when he could get medicare, I paid the big bucks for 5 more years so we could both retire at the same time. However.....the cost of living and housing in Sun City is so reasonable it will almost cover the extra cost of paying for your own insurance.,
Please let us know when you arrive. Have you been to Sun City looking for a place to live? You will find it a fantastic place.
You'll love this C: Sun City opened (1960) pre-medicare and DEVCO actually started a health care plan for those buying in Sun City. The cost was something like $6 or $8 a month. When medicare came in they quickly got out of the business. I'm giving a tour of the museum to a group of Chinese visitors tomorrow morning and I will see if I can dig up the info. I think we have the plan hanging on the wall.
We have been self employed for over 24 years now and it has been a lively adventure. There was a time after the 91 recession that we had to go without insurance and we had 3 young children. Did not sleep well. We managed to survive and I can remember the day when we were making enough to afford a small policy. This last recession has been the worst we can remember but we had enough savings to keep our plan, as worthless as it is, until work picked up. We won't fully retire for another 4 years or so. Life is interesting to say the least.
Many times in my life I didn't have insurance but I was a young adult and didn't think it was so important. Now these aging joints are always making me go to the doctor. I eat healthy but the darn joints are just wearing out.
Thanks all for the warm welcomes (even though I'm not there yet) B, I wish Dell Webb still had that healthcare plan...I might be tempted to take it. But really I should work a longer and save anyway. Most of my life I've had difficult jobs, ICU nurse, nurse practitioner seeing too many patients per day etc, but now my job is much lighter. And I'm making more money than I did when I had those killer jobs (go figure). So I should just tuff it out and keep dreaming about retirement until I'm 65 or get laid off work. Never know about those things.
Dell Webb sounds like he was quite an amazing person. I see a few articles about him but I tried to find a bio and I don't think anyone has written one. Maybe I will. I think there's a lot to write about.
It might be helpful to know that the doctors in Sun City are very well informed of the medical problems of those getting older. Please note I did not say "elderly".layful:
