HCOL vs LCOL and medical care in retirement?

[DeskJockey2028]

This weekend my family took a trip from our fairly High Cost of Living (HCOL) area to a fairly Low Cost of Living (LCOL) area to visit friends and family.

One of those visits were to some family friends in their mid-70s who had retired about 15 years prior. In the discussion we were having with them they revealed to us that they had both been diagnosed with (luckily very treatable) cancer. They also let us know that they were traveling to our area, where there are more doctors, more hospitals and more specialists) 3-6 times a month. This was a 2.5 hour journey each way, made to have Chemo treatments and other medicines that must be administered by a hospital.

Their choices in doing this were staying overnight at en expensive hotel in the HCOL environment or traveling home that evening after spending 5-7 hours in the hospital receiving their treatments. Treatments which left them feeling very ill.

They confided in us that they were looking into buying a smaller home in our area but that even a smaller house would cost them twice what they could get for their pretty good sized home.

This got me to thinking. I can certainly understand the attraction and the realities of FIREing to a LCOL area. Makes a lot of sense. But with aging often comes medical issues and specialists/best-in-class doctors aren't always readily available in LCOL areas.

How much has this particular dilemma factored into your planning? I understand that a couple fighting two different types of cancer at the same time may be an outlier - but the same would hold true if only one of them was fighting it, just with less frequency in traveling and staying over.

For us, we're planning on staying put when we retire - we love the area and are already invested in the housing market. It's also nice to be 30-45 minutes away from some of the best health care available.

[KaizenSoze]

We haven't FIRE'd yet but this something we have thought about. Our solution at this point is college towns, they usually have good medical care. Sometimes even medical research schools. Usually, they are between LCOL and HCOL depending on how close you are the college.

[stoaX]

Thanks for posting this story, Deskjockey.  Your post highlights the importance of taking the time to research and think through what your life will be like in different places.  HCOL vs. LCOL is a good concept to start your thinking but it is just a start.

[begood]

This plays into my thinking as well. As KaizenSoze says, college towns - or at least university towns with teaching hospitals - are a good option. Within the Triangle area in NC (Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh) are a plethora of excellent teaching hospitals.Chapel Hill has a higher COL for the area, but not compared to Boston, DC, or San Francisco. And within easy drive of those cities are places like Mebane, Hillsborough, Roxboro, Apex, Garner, and other LCOL towns.

Today I discovered that Wegmans (my favorite grocery store here in the Mid-Atlantic) is opening a store in Charlottesville, VA, which checks one more box for that university town. If only it had a Wawa. ;)

[lizzzi]

Very low cost of living area here, with world-class hospital system an hour and a half away. Definitely something to consider no matter where you move. And major illnesses/dire accidents can happen to young people, too. Quality and availability of health care is one thing that should always be factored in to where you choose to live.