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Skip Gundlach
 
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Default Health insurance, again

Well, the time is approaching, and just as before when we thought we'd be
leaving soon, life has interrupted (or at least complicated matters).

To shorten the story, following a stress test and immediate catheterization
a week ago, I now have 3 stents in my heart artery having been, and
remaining, regardless, asymptomatic of any problem. I'm going to work on
the boat again in a couple of days, and still do my physical therapy for my
arm, so nothing has changed in that regard. As quickly as my shoulder
objective is reached, we're outta here.

Lydia, when we leave, of course, won't have the insurance which has made
dealing with what's turned out to be a pile of horsepucky on my part
possible. The surgeon is adamant that we should do COBRA when she leaves
and maintain health insurance for quite some time. He also wants me to have
a followup stress test as late as possible before we leave or 6 months from
now, whichever comes first. It's our expectation that to COBRA would nearly
double our cruising budget - which, probably needless to say, changes
matters rather drastically. And, of course, that's only available for a
(relatively) short period of time, in any case.

Worse, we don't expect to be in the US waters more than fleetingly, and then
only peripherally, i. e. Puerto Rico and the US Virgins, as we expect to
cruise the Caribbean.

Lo these 7 years ago, when I started researching via reading this group and
others, long before even looking for a boat, I recall a highly regarded
English company insuring Americans for everywhere other than the US, for
some pittance. Of course, now, (now) with my history, we may have some
great difficulty receiving insurance, at all.

However, to the point of the post, what's folks' recommendations for health
insurance in non-US waters (expected to be Caribbean only for the forseeable
future, but that includes a slow work-down of the thorny path, perhaps some
significant time in the Bahamas for starters)?

Thanks.

L8R

Skip (and Lydia, by proxy)

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain