Flashermac Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 If you retire in Thailand and want to keep Medicare, you have to agree to have something taken out of your SS payments each month. If you don't do so at the beginning, your Medicare coverage gets reduced by about 10% each year you wait. To be honest, SS was not meant to be a pension. It started under the New Deal to ensure that folks too old to work would have some money coming in. Think of it as a supplement to a pension. Unfortunately, plenty of us nowadays don't get a pension. I've worked all my life, but never at any one place long enough to get one. My Mrs will get a nice pension from the Thai government, since she is a C-8 civil servant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allistar Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 Really, the only thing I expect my SS payments to do is cover the 400,000 baht requirement for the marriage visa. My wife has a desire to work in the U.S. but has no desire to wait 4-5 years while her engish skills improve taking classes. My pension is the trust fund set up by my grandfather in 1932 and is set to be distributed among his grandchildren when his last child, now 84, dies. That and having all 4 of my wife's children finishing their education in the U.S. and getting good jobs (actually, thats the life insurance policy for my wife, in case I die before she does). As fare as medicare, I'm 57. From what I have read, it is very hard to get an affordable health insurance policy in Thailand after one turns 60, so I'll probably get a policy when I'm 59, hopefully for what I would have paid the U.S. government each month for medicare. It would be wishful thinking that the Thai policy would cover my requirements for having health insurance by 2014 under Obamacare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted October 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 SCB Bank was offering health insurance, like a 5M Baht policy for about $1000 USD / year. Also, I think it is called Friendly (Family?) Insurance out of the UK was also reasonable and they are said not to drop you after 65 or so like BUPA does. Medicrap is a waste of $$$ as you still must buy a private policy to cover all that Medicrap does not cover and plan to pay $300++ a month for that! For me, I will tell them to stuff the Medicrap, live outside the USA and buy my own insurance. As long as you can live outside the USA and still collect social security, no problems...but rumor is buzzing that they might change that if living outside the USA you will not be able to collect social security. For sure, the US gov is NOT looking out for the interests of its citizens, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 Kasikorn Thai was pushing some sort of health insurance plan, as was Bangkok Bank. Not all that expensive, though the coverage wasn't magnificent. Good by Thai standards, I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 "...but rumor is buzzing that they might change that if living outside the USA you will not be able to collect social security..." Direct deposit into a USA bank...how do they know where you "live?" Have a USA address anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted October 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 They know if you spent a large amount of time outside the USA...it's all in the 'puter. At one time, the wifey came back to the USA and they wanted to take away her green card because she spent too much time outside the USA and thus, was not living in the USA...even though she was living with me while I was working in Taiwan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous God Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Cav that one pisses me off, A bloke can find a girl, next week take her to Aus, or my wife can live with me as I am a expat, for 10 years, 2 kids, and BOTH of them are starting from equal. Both then need to wait 3 years for a passport Not fair, someone married for 9 year with 2 Aussie kids (or the USA equivalent) should get some kind of "Time Earned" for putting up with crazy expats, Not saying no wait for passport, but maybe 50% time off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Don't get me started on how stupid USA immigration laws are...want to come legally for a visit? fuck you, but if you are here illegally, that is just fine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted October 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 >but if you are here illegally, that is just fine... ...better yet, the USA will give you free medical and then the USA wants to make you legal! Hmmm, Let's rob some banks and then the US gov can say "...all is forgiven, keep the money, you are no longer a criminal...". About the same farkin thing!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dean Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Cav, the day that my wife can legally apply for citizenship (October 18, 2011;3 years after entering the U.S.), I am going to push her to try for it. Once she passes, she, and her 3 kids, are free of U.S. government regulations (mainly Homeland Security incompetence). The beginning of the summer of 2011, I will start quizzing her with old citizenship tests and will probably sign her up for citizenship classes. I don't trust the government to do the right thing by them, particularly if I croak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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