Help me find a new place to live.

[StefinSB]

The medical care in the US is great (best in the world) as long as you are super rich or super poor, or have some sort of retirement lifetime medical plan through a govt agency.
Medical care and insurance premiums in the US are taking a huge chunk of the middle class’s spending power, especially the self employed.

Not sure what your metric for “best in the world” is. Have you ever looked at medical care outside of the US?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I live in a rural coastal community in California that almost exclusively attracts people in the 55 plus age range. Their biggest disappointment is that healthcare is far below their expectations. Economic dynamics largely dictates that. The drive to decent healthcare in Santa Rosa is about 2 hours and 3-4 hours to world-class healthcare in the Bay Area. That doesn't sound that bad until a diagnostic and treatment regime requires a lot of repeat appointments.

The other consideration is early diagnosis is less likely in areas that can't support a diversity of specialists. Early diagnosis is often the difference between an inconvenient treatment and a miserable prolonged death for you or your loved ones. Same with ER capability. A long ambulance ride to an advanced center when the weather grounds choppers will put you outside the "golden hour".

On the other hand, there aren't many world-class medical centers that I would want to live near. Quality of life, cost of living, accessibility, economic opportunity, good diving, and great medical care are often conflicting requirements. I feel your pain.

Mendocino is one of the most beautiful places on earth. If I could live anywhere else in California it would be there. The problem is the wife would never go for it.

 

[drrich2]

Have you ever s

Your question got cut off. If it's 'Have I ever been in a tornado,' no, but I've seen some of the aftermath (property damage, not bodies). It ain't pretty.

Richard.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Your question got cut off. If it's 'Have I ever been in a tornado,' no, but I've seen some of the aftermath (property damage, not bodies). It ain't pretty.

Richard.

Oh, I was going to ask, have you ever seen a fire tornado?
There was one here that picked up a Dodge dually truck and launched it a block and a half away from where it was parked when Coffey Park went up. Imagine that, a tornado made out of fire instead of air.
Pretty terrifying!

 

[drrich2]

No! Wow. One more thing to think about.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Not sure what your metric for “best in the world” is. Have you ever looked at medical care outside of the US?

I was referring to the technology end of it, not so much the availability of it to all people equally.
I’m sure other 1st world countries have equal or better technology, and maybe much of the current most cutting edge technology was developed in those countries.
I’m going to retract my earlier statement that we have “the best in the world” and change it to “we have pretty good”.

 

[DeputyDan]

To the OP.
If I were you, I would rent a place for six months on the west coast of Costa Rica.
And see how I liked it.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

To the OP.
If I were you, I would rent a place for six months on the west coast of Costa Rica.
And see how I liked it.

One of my good friend is building a house on the west coast of Costa Rica.
He’s invited me to stay down there multiple times. I’m planning to take him up on it.

 

[diversteve]

Are Phoenix and Tucson likely to have water shortages in the next 10-20 years?

I don't think so. We get a large percentage of the Colorado River water via the CAP Canal and even when drought had substantially lowered Lake Mead and other lakes around the edges of the state we had no water restrictions like CA.

Some of the other local lakes are fed by 2 river systems from the high country, If you saw on the news this week about the several feet of snow in Flgstaff this week some of that will find it's way here - it's 2+ hrs. from my house. I don't follow it but the last time I saw the storage aquifers under Phoenix mentioned they were 80% full and filling.
Water Mgmt is a very big deal here, one of the two power companies manages all the dams and the canal systms in town,

IDK where Tucson gets it's water. It's ringed by mountain ranges so likely some is run-off.

Understand that this is a desert, If I drive 5mi north or west I'm in it. I have grass but desert land scapimg is popular here also.We have a lot of pools - probably 10 on my block alone, And a lot of golf courses - probably close to 100.