Skip Gundlach wrote:
Coming late to this party, and having dealt with a deadline for Cobra
conversion by gritting our teeth, grimacing and signing up, we have
another avenue to explore.

A full-time cruiser, just arrived in our boatyard where we're not quite
left yet, but at least, in the water, published writer in Latts/Atts,
Lat38 and others, sez he doesn't do health insurance, even in his
relatively high risk years before cruising.

Several reasons, all amounting to "wherever you are, they have to take
care of you" plus whatever the cost adjustments/free you can negotiate
on top of the international differences in the medical care costs as
compared to the US.

He cited several large medical expenses he'd incurred in the past
several years, and the total expense was way smaller than he'd have
paid in premiums.

.. . .

My wife died about 5 years ago, leaving a hospital bill of about
$80,000.00. The insurance company gave me a hard time for about 4
months and the hospital had started adding interest charges to the
bill. Then one day I got a bill that said $6,000.00. I called the
hospital and they said the insurance company had refused to pay so they
had adjusted the bill. Then in the next breath she said, however, they
have now agreed to pay and the balance had been returned to the
original amount. I doubt if that's very typical and I still don't
understand how or why they could have done that. It was a non-profit
hospital, but I don't know if that makes any difference.

Medical costs are, of course, less in foreign countries. In fact, there
is something called "medical tourism" that's gaining popularity. Here's
some example sites:

http://www.newstarget.com/007097.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/he...altourism.html
http://pd.cpim.org/2004/0509/05092004_snd.htm
http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2005/m...ism072505.html

If you are 62 and own a house that's paid for, a possibility might be
to take out a reverse mortgage. This might discourage medical bill
collectors from taking out a lien on your house.