Health Insurance

[Madwand]

Originally Posted by osirissail

If you worked in any job that paid social security taxes anything during your life for a total of "x" years (credits) you are eligible to receive SS payments and Medicare at your appropriate SS benefit age.
From SS/gov website:
How do you qualify for retirement benefits?
When you work and pay Social Security taxes, you earn “credits” toward Social Security benefits.
The number of credits you need to get retirement benefits depends on when you were born. If you were born in 1929 or later, you need 40 credits (10 years of work).
If you stop working before you have enough credits to qualify for benefits, the credits will remain on your Social Security record. If you return to work later on, you can add more credits so that you qualify. No retirement benefits can be paid until you have the required number of credits.

Unless you have a government pension. The Windfall Elimination Provision makes sure that the money I contributed (yes I do have 40 credits) goes to someone more "needy." Because I have a government retirement, I am penalized and considered too wealthy to receive benefits from my own contributions. Ain't America great? It's such an awesome responsibility to support the unwashed masses!

[Madwand]

Originally Posted by cuthbert

And that is reflected in the cost (200 per annum when I last took it). I repeated every year for about 5 years. Its not meant to cover medical/dental doctors precaustionary check up visits, or palliative care etc. Merely to cover unforseen misfortune.

I see. I didn't get as far as the price. We were talking about Major Medical insurance when you posted that link, so I thought this was real insurance; that price is not bad for what it covers. Still funny that they won't cover the same thing 2 years in a row.

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by Madwand

Unless you have a government pension. The Windfall Elimination Provision makes sure that the money I contributed (yes I do have 40 credits) goes to someone more "needy." Because I have a government retirement, I am penalized and considered too wealthy to receive benefits from my own contributions. Ain't America great? It's such an awesome responsibility to support the unwashed masses!

Got to agree with you there - It's a good thing we invented "vasoline" in the USA, we sure need a lot of it when it comes to stuff like this.
- - Here is the government page on Windfall Elimination Provision where it seems you can, at worst, only get 25% of what you would normally be entitled to if you were one of the "vast unwashed."
Windfall Elimination Provision

[Madwand]

Originally Posted by osirissail

Got to agree with you there - It's a good thing we invented "vasoline" in the USA, we sure need a lot of it when it comes to stuff like this.
Windfall Elimination Provision

One of the many reasons I don't plan to ever come back to the states if I can help it.

[Troubadour52993]

Diver's Alert Network (http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/insurance/compare.asp)
has an accidental injury plan that covers you outside home country, a given for most cruisers. For $70 a year, it covers $250K for diving accidents and recompression, but the top plan covers $10K of non-dive related accidents too. It won't cover the cancer operations, but probably would the broken hip. Not exactly health insurance, but it is a more cost efffective peace of mind than the thousands some others are paying if something bad happens.

DAN is a non-profit organization and I feel they're worthy of support. They operate a 24 hour diving emergency hotline free of charge, even if you're not a member. Full disclosure: I am a member, teach several of their courses (first aid for hazardous marine life injuries, AED use, and O2 use), and carry their insurance.

[osirissail]

The value of DAN for non-divers is the Med-i-Vac (repatriation) insurance. In case of a major injury or something the local medical system cannot deal with - DAN will assist and pay for the cost of the private jet to return you to the USA for advanced medical treatment.
- - For US$100/year for me (I'm a diver) - if I have to be Med-i-Vac's back to the States it saves me more than US$30K. Good deal.
- - But for Medical Insurance inside the USA that is something you have to either maintain before and during your international cruising, otherwise being Med-i-Vac's back is of little or no value as you cannot pay for hospital/doctor service anyway.
- - For International Medical Insurance - it pretty much is for those cases where you want to use the "private" medical half of a country's medical system. The public clinics are pretty much "free" but of much lower standards of care than the "private" systems.
- - If you are "never" going to return - that is a pretty big "if" as when you get older or incur a medical situation/injury that is beyond the local country's abilities you have boxed yourself into a corner where the only out is to die - whereas if you maintained links to your USA medical you could get the necessary medical care to stay alive.
- - The cruising life is built around the axiom that "you're in charge of your life and death" so unlike living inside the USA, where the governments and activist groups are in charge of your life - you can make your own decisions in the matter.

[Madwand]

That's the reason for the big "if." I'd just as soon go ahead and die when the option is return to the U.S. to live out my time as an invalid. Why would anyone choose that? Most people just don't know when it's time to give in to the elements...

[hellosailor]

"- - For US$100/year for me (I'm a diver) - if I have to be Med-i-Vac's back to the States it saves me more than US$30K. Good deal."
Osiris, I'd swear I read their blurb last month and that insurance and medevac only covers dive-related accidents. Get hit by a bus, and whether that is dive-related depends on whether you were on your way to a beach dive, I suppose?

[osirissail]

hellosailor - you had me worried there for 10 minutes - you never know when things that were in the past get changed. So for 10 minutes of searching the DAN.org site I found that - yes, you can get med-evac insurance for any medicial reason (they have to agree) back to the USA. Here is an exerpt:
DAN Membership
TravelAssist
+1-919-684-9111
If outside the USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, British or U.S. Virgin Islands, call +1-919-684-9111 collect.
When you join DAN, you are automatically enrolled in DAN's travel assistance plan and your family is covered with your family membership. If you travel at least 50 miles/80 km from your permanent residence, TravelAssist is there to help 24 hours a day. DAN TravelAssist arranges emergency medical evacuations for any medical emergency - and provides many more benefits - for you and your immediate family members.
IMPORTANT: DAN TravelAssist must arrange ALL evacuations. If you make your own emergency evacuation arrangements DAN TravelAssist will not reimburse the cost.





It is run by an outside company called Travelassist. It is buried at:DAN Divers Alert Network : Membership : TravelAssist