Reason #5 (for retirement in Mexico)

HEALTH CARE

A couple of months ago I went to the Social Security Office in my pueblo to sign up for Medicare. I had studied the booklet "Medicare and You 2010" and I had found my original SS card with my maiden name. I expected to show some ID, my SS card and that would be that. NOT! I had to pick a number, sit and wait (even though there was no one else in the room), observe the uniformed guard watching TV until, for some reason unknown to myself, my name was called and I went behind the bullet-proof glass.

The Medicare Interview: my mother's maiden name, my mother-in-law's maiden name, the birth dates of my children, my marriage date(s), my husband's SS#, etc. At the end she said, "do you swear that everything you have said is the truth?"
Hmmm. . . "I think I got the birth year wrong for my younger child." Whew! A potential problem now is that my medicare and SS have my middle initial as "A" (my middle name), while all my other IDs have my middle initial as "P" (my maiden name). What flight will I be denied because of this, I wonder. Of course I didn't think of this at the time.

Then I had to choose among parts A,B,C,D. Part A is hospitalization and it's the only free one. Part B is doctor visits and costs about $100 a month. Part C is for treatment of renal failure! (How did that disease get singled out?) Part D is for medication and costs about $100 a month. So, big decision! I'm healthy and take no medication right now, but when you're old you have to think about that disease/condition just around the corner waiting to zap you. On the other hand, I want to be able to live on my and my esposo's Social Security plus a small pension. $200 is a big chunk of change and it's double what I'm paying as an employee.

So. . .how about retirement in Mexico for the health care?