For US citizens and other expats living abroad, understanding your international healthcare coverage options is complex. Do you need Expat health insurance, Public Insurance, Private Insurance, or Travel insurance? This article breaks down the different types of medical coverage options so you can make an informed decision.
Hi Marco, i made a list of cities in Europe i'd like to retire.
the question I have is how to compare the level of medical service in each of those cities, and how to estimate medical expenses .
Any suggestions?
Best,
Teo
Hi Teo,
There is a quick way and a hard way. Quick will get you directionally correct, while hard will be more accurate.
The difficult part is making things apples to apples. In the US, insurance is only one part of the cost, as most plans have deductible, copay, and coinsurance. Some plans in Europe are one payment for everything. For example, my private insurance policy in Spain was $60 per month, no copay and no deductible. For a quick comparison, I would get a two quotes for international health insurance from here.
1) Worldwide coverage including the US (which will be very expensive)
2) Worldwide coverage excluding the US (will make your health insurance over 50% cheaper)
If you want to get more specific, I would use healthcare.gov to get online ACA health insurance quotes for each US city.
The other part is comparing quality of care, because not every hospital in every city has the same quality of doctors and equipment. To be honest, I've never looked for that granule of detail.
FYI, I lived in most of the cities you have listed in the Balkans. This is one of my favorite regions of the world. Good luck in your search.