‘Health care will keep us from going back...’ says Texas couple who retired to Spain on $2k a month

www.marketwatch.com ^ | Published: Oct 17, 2019 1:18 p.m. ET | By Catey Hill

[Texan5]

Does the tendency to be hot tempered and an unrepentant rebel still run in your family? It does in mine-most of us have been in a dicey situation because of that at least once...

[SamAdams76]

This is a problem. Government and educator's pension is based on about 25 years of service. Hell, I was just hitting my prime after 25 years of work, certainly not thinking of sitting at home waiting for a pension check to come in the mail.

I expect to work until at least 70. Maybe I go a few years longer if I'm still healthy. But that's not how our public service employees think.

[EVO X]

We have private insurance but they don’t care and we still get to pay that $135. It is all a big scam.

My elderly dad agrees with you...

[dhs12345]

Offered at a time when the tax payers could afford it. But like Social Security, you need 10x more people paying into the system, than taking from it. Plus people living longer, inflation, etc.

It will have to be addressed sometime in the future otherwise taxes will go through the roof and cities and states will have to take on huge debt.

Since city's and state's pension funds (including health care) are separate from the general funds (RE: Social Security), will Medicare for all absorb the State pension provided healthcare? In other words, will the state and local retirees have to switch to Medicare for all too. Along with private companies who will be forced to switch their private insurance to Medicare for all?

This could be both a plus and a minus for the state pension funds — plus: they'd have a new resource for funding their pensions (if they are not in the red right now, they will be in the future); minus: if they do have excess left in the budget, it will be absorbed by Medicare for all.