Moving with Bipolar I

[prairierose]

Hubby and I have decided to move when he retires in 1 or 2 years. How do we do this without me getting sick again? It will be a 4000 km move to be near kids and extended family probably. I am already slowly working towards it by de-cluttering things. We'll be moving from a 3 bedroom, 2 storey home, with finished basement, into a 3 BR condo townhouse or bungalow. I want a bungalow, DH wants the condo. Ultimately what we get for this house will determine what we buy there. I'm guessing we need to cut our possessions by at least 50%. So I'm focusing on that for now.

Any moving tips? Especially relating to medications and physicians? I understand I may have to wait a year to see a psychiatrist in the new locale, and that I'll be waiting in the ER to have my prescriptions refilled until I can find a family doctor, or the province finds one for me. Not pleasant, but after the first year things should smooth out, I hope? The move is from the prairies to the east coast.

[paul m]

Hello prairierose. One of the problems that I always have whenever a big change is coming up in my life is trying to remain focused on the good stuff. The bad stuff will come along on it's own and need not be focused on. Easy to say, hard to do LOL.

You may want to get as complete of copy of any medical records that you can. (mental and physical) Your new doc can request them, but even if you get the last 4-5 pages copied and a summary letter from your doc, it will help.

Depending on your drug plan, if you have one, try and get as many medications as you can. For example my plan allows a 100 day supply if the doctor will prescribe that much. Because I have some docs that don't want to see me very often they will write out a yrs worth of prescriptions in advance. Even if they won't give you and more than a 30 day supply at a time, they should give you 11 refills. That should save you waiting in the ER. Make sure that you take your existing pharmacies phone and fax #'s with you. Your prescriptions should still be good, but the new pharmacy will have to ck with the old one.

Most provinces have a 3 mth waiting period before you are covered by their provincial health plan. For example if I moved to BC, I would have to wait for 3 mths before I was covered by BC health. In the meantime I would still be covered by OHIP (Ontario) , but if doctors charged more in BC than in Ontario I would be responsible for the difference. Usually the difference is small and sometimes not even collected. But make sure that you take your old healthcard with you. Good Luck cutting your possessions in half, I dread the day that I have to do that , but I know it's coming soon. Take Care. paul m

[prairierose]

Thanks Paul. I hadn't thought about being charged extra for doctor's visits. Hmmm...

[paul m]

Hello Parrierose. There isn't too much difference across the country in what a doctor gets paid, otherwise a lot of the doc's would all move to the province who paid the most.

Perhaps the doctors fee will even be less in the new province. Although I doubt if they will give you a refund LOL.

Below is a link to a chart that compares costs between provinces in general. It is a little out of date(2010) but that is as current as I can find. You will see that a lot of things are the same between provinces. (well we in Ontario have to pay for health coverage based on our taxable income, that is our problem and not yours LOL)

If you now get such things as vision and dental benefits through your husbands employer or another source you would want to get those check up etc before you leave and/or if they are employee benefits make sure that they follow you into retirement. Not all benefit plans do. My wife's plan isn't too bad of a plan, but it ends the day she quit's working or turns 65. Take Care. paul m

[prairierose]

Thanks again Paul. Unfortunately Hubby's health care plan does not follow us in retirement. We have to convert into another plan. I am not coverable on regular insurance because I am so much younger than him and have a multitude of "pre-existing conditions". If I was covered it would cost us almost $5000 CAD per year. My drugs will cost us $2400 per year if we have to pay for them all ourselves. So it pays to not have the health insurance coverage when he retires. But that's a real gamble.

That is actually one of the reason we are thinking of moving. The province we're moving to has a special program for low income families, which we would qualify for. We'd only have to pay the first $1500 per year and they'd cover the rest until I turned 65. Then I'd be on the senior's program.

I decided to phone my sister, a doc, about this paying extra. She said it totally depends where you're moving too and from, and on the doc involved. She never charges extra, no matter who comes through the door, if they are Canadian. But others might, especially if the person walks in without a health care card or with an expired health care card...or with no fixed address. They want to make sure they get some of their money at least. But she says if they have a health care card the doc just has to bill Medicare in their province, and they bill Medicare in the patient's home province, who pay the bill.

In other news on moving. Said sister lives near the province we want to move to and has offered to phone up her doctor friends to see if she can get me in to see people right away when I get down there...so I'm not left waiting a year or more to get a doc. I don't know about that. I feel as if I'm jumping the queue, but I may need it.

She also suggested some good communities that might be more affordable for us to live in. She was quite excited about the possibility of me living near her. I warned her we were thinking long term - like 1 or 2 years from now! It's going to take me that long to de-clutter the house.

[Fighting back]

file:///C:/Users/Telecare%20Volunteers/Downloads/2010_10_01_Health_Care_in_Canada_2010.pdf

Paul, that link seems to point to something local on your hard drive?

If I may offer an opinion on health care across the provinces? I have lived in 3 of the 4 western provinces. BC had a health care fee that would have been very expensive to maintain in retirement. It was geared to income and was waived for low income individuals. Alberta either has such a fee in place, or was planning to introduce such a fee. Manitoba and Saskatchewan had no additional health care fees. I cannot predict if this situation will extend into the future. I think all provinces have a drug plan geared towards low income earners. I don't think any of the provinces cover dental or eye care as well as ambulance service. Saskatchewan will provide an annual eye exam as part of diabetes care. There probably is a lot of nuance in every individual situation that I could not predict, but this has been my experience.

One thing noteworthy about moving is that your provincial provider covers your health care for 3 months after you move. When I retired and moved from BC, my employer continued to pay the BC health care premium for another three months. I had immediately moved back to Saskatchewan and was quite surprised when 3 months later, I began to receive bills from BC Health. Of course, they were based on my pre-retirement income and the amount was quite substantial. It took a couple phone calls to clear up the situation, but I had already obtained my Saskatchewan health card. Important detail to follow up on because unpaid health care premiums can be reported to the credit reporting agencies.

[paul m]

Thx Fighting back. I don't know how I did that and when I run a search I cannot find it again. Take Care. paul m