Quote:
Originally Posted by Bevdeforges
Say, Margaret, it sounds as if you've found a good spot to at least start your retirement. But one question that comes up repeatedly on these message boards is that of medical care and insurance for retirees. Within the EU it's not as much a problem as it was, but for some countries (like the US) it can pose considerable difficulty for a retiree.
What is your sense of the medical facilities where you are in Egypt, and have you looked into the issue of insurance once you are retired?
Cheers,
Bev
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You don't get anything for nothing here. Egyptians have to pay for all medical care as do expats. There would appear to a tiered system whereby the expats pay a lot more because they can afford it and the locals pay a lot less which is OK by me. I have paid £30 tops to see a consultant and cost of medicine is cheap if you use Egyptian and a bit more expensive for foreign medicine. Cost of dental treatment is approximately half of what you will pay in the UK.
There are good hospitals and bad hospitals, the best being, from what I have heard, very good, but the nursing standards are not quite what they should be. Accidents happen, but then accidents happen in hospitals anywhere in world.
We have had to use the medical facilities in Cairo a number of times in the past 2 years. I have to say though, that this has been via my husbands' company medical centre who refer you to the top specialists. Most of the doctors/surgeons here, that we have seen, have spent considerable time abroad eg. UK and USA during their career and we have had excellent treatment. We have company insurance at the moment so we pay and claim back.
This is obviously going to change for us and one of the reasons we have chosen El Gouna is that it has an excellent hospital in the town. The hospital has it's own medical insurance scheme which we will consider using. I think it costs around £150 - £200 per year, but don't quote me on that. However, the cost of medical care is not expensive (for us) but we would definitely have to think seriously about having insurance cover for serious problems ie. having to be medi-vacced which happened to my husband last year.
Margaret