Retirement to a country life is deemed romantic by some and is usually a less expensive life style. But it has some distinct disadvantages. One of these is finding a reasonable selection of health care workers. While we retained our connection with specialists an hour away such as my husbands prostate cancer doctor, we did change all of the others. Our primary care physician is scattered, sort of nerdy, and reminds me of my uncle who was a 'momma's boy'. He has correctly diagnosed a few illnesses we have had since moving here. We are continuing to use him, but really hope to find someone we connect with more.
Our optometrist is young and cute and female. Hubby has fallen in love with her. He claims he likes her because she looks him in the eye (!). She uses all the latest technology, and her office is nearby so we will keep her.
The dentist was selected on a whim while driving by his office in a delightful building on a side road. He is charming and his whole staff is pleasant and very good at what they do. The only problem is that he is off network for our insurance. This means our insurance will require us to pay 40% - 60% of all expenses. Hubby does not want to give this dentist up and start the search for a new one. In-network dentists are quite a drive from where we live. Hubby also strongly feels that the health of ones teeth are more important to general good health as we age. He is right of course.
We asked what insurance this dentist carried and we looked at getting that as a rider. But it would cost about $900 a year for the two of us. At that rate, after three or four years it might be cheaper just to pay for dental care out of pocket! I am looking at a filling replacement and a small bite correction in the near future. I have until the 15th to change my health insurance in any way.
Yuck!
Tabor, I surely understand. My primary care doctor is in Nashville. My doctor since in my 20's retired 10 years ago and seems I have never found anyone like "him". Went to local eye doctor yesterday. My dry eyes are getting really bad. May have to go to a specialist. He tells me keep using liquid tears and if that does not work - eventually - some sort of tear duct surgery - you are right on target "yuck".
ReplyDeleteDealing with health care insurance is one of my worst chores. My husband's company changes insurances about every year and you're right, it sucks having to look for a new doctor. We found a dentist we really like and one year when our insurance changed he wasn't in the network, but we kept going and we paid a lot of out of pocket money but it was well worth it. Now he's back in our network. Not sure about this next year though. Hubby just went through all the insurance papers a couple of days ago. I try to avoid it. Sad, but true.
ReplyDeleteIt does suck to have to shop health care providers. We have been thru a few since we moved here. I kept my primary care doc where we used to live, which worked fine until recently, they closed that office. bummer. Himself has a ton of docs & none that really fit.
ReplyDeleteFiguring out the best ways to approach medical care (as we age) is hard at best. I suppose we are lucky to live in the same place we have for 40 years, and don't have to change docs at this time in our lives.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds to me as if you're being pretty reasonable about this.
ReplyDeleteUmmm....does that eye doc make house calls? To Pennsylvania?