Hi Nancy. Always enjoy your news! Do you mind telling me which health insurance you and Denise are using? We've had Allianz A+ with significant increases (70 and 72). Ours increased quite a bit for 2026. Muito obrigada!
My rate (MGEN) increased 9.7% (age 64). I am still pondering Medicare, but it seems for a number of reasons that deferring for five years would not penalize me more than paying for five years of coverage that I do not use and this is assuming I return to the US which is not currently in my plans.
I am confused. Are you living in Portugal? You said that your insurance coverage went up. If you live in Portugal, you do not need US health insurance unless your primary residence is in the US.
Yes we live in PT. When we decided we would not return to US we cancelled Medicare Part B. We purchase private insurance in PT even though we are eligible for the public system.
I just turned 65, but no longer have a US address or residency. I have supplemental insurance here for my family, but it is only 200 euros a year through Midicare.pt. I am supposed to apply for US Medicare Part A, but I have not bothered, even though they threaten to punish me. To apply, I would have to make an appointment at the US Embassy. I can not apply online since I do not have a US address and phone number. When I turn 67, I can get Social Security benefits, and who knows what hoops I would have to go through to get it, and I only qualify for 50% of the minimum since I worked in Portugal for the last 20 years! I hope I do not need it since I have a private retirement fund. Of course, if I moved back to the US, I would have to get a job that pays at least 40 grand just to make ends meet!
We have a thriving pickleball community in Caldas da Rainha, with a growing Portuguese membership and a wide range of ages. Nighttime play really helped broaden the accessibility. Come play with us sometime! And enjoy Puglia. I recently returned from harvesting olives there. Lovely place.
Their best plan is Total, at twice the cost of Ideal, which is what I think you must have. We are 73/76, so it would be around €730/month for us for the Ideal plan.
This subject could be worthy of a whole post. Over at AFIP, John Egan has several posts arguing that most American expats here are reflexively overinsured, because the little/regular stuff should be out of pocket and the big stuff is SNS. Even the €5,000 bill becomes manageable if you are paying €8,000 a year.
We don't have private insurance here or Part B in the US, but we do have retiree insurance in the US, so we aren't a good example. But we are thinking seriously about MGen at the basic level (€2,200 for us) to cover some possible things. Surgery for a broken wrist in Lisbon, for example, is not likely to be practicable in the SNS system (the ortho beds are all occupied waiting with broken hips for post-surgical beds to free up), but it is perfectly practicable in Vila Nova de Gaia.
Survey done!
Hi Nancy. Always enjoy your news! Do you mind telling me which health insurance you and Denise are using? We've had Allianz A+ with significant increases (70 and 72). Ours increased quite a bit for 2026. Muito obrigada!
Mgen Advancecare
Well, I never - pickleball court by Continente
My rate (MGEN) increased 9.7% (age 64). I am still pondering Medicare, but it seems for a number of reasons that deferring for five years would not penalize me more than paying for five years of coverage that I do not use and this is assuming I return to the US which is not currently in my plans.
No survey link
I am confused. Are you living in Portugal? You said that your insurance coverage went up. If you live in Portugal, you do not need US health insurance unless your primary residence is in the US.
Yes we live in PT. When we decided we would not return to US we cancelled Medicare Part B. We purchase private insurance in PT even though we are eligible for the public system.
I just turned 65, but no longer have a US address or residency. I have supplemental insurance here for my family, but it is only 200 euros a year through Midicare.pt. I am supposed to apply for US Medicare Part A, but I have not bothered, even though they threaten to punish me. To apply, I would have to make an appointment at the US Embassy. I can not apply online since I do not have a US address and phone number. When I turn 67, I can get Social Security benefits, and who knows what hoops I would have to go through to get it, and I only qualify for 50% of the minimum since I worked in Portugal for the last 20 years! I hope I do not need it since I have a private retirement fund. Of course, if I moved back to the US, I would have to get a job that pays at least 40 grand just to make ends meet!
We have a thriving pickleball community in Caldas da Rainha, with a growing Portuguese membership and a wide range of ages. Nighttime play really helped broaden the accessibility. Come play with us sometime! And enjoy Puglia. I recently returned from harvesting olives there. Lovely place.
Denise played there in 2021 and we played there again in 2022.
It’s grown since then :)
Please keep in mind our ages…since turning 70+ increases have been more significant. But to answer your question, we do have their “best” plan.
Their best plan is Total, at twice the cost of Ideal, which is what I think you must have. We are 73/76, so it would be around €730/month for us for the Ideal plan.
This subject could be worthy of a whole post. Over at AFIP, John Egan has several posts arguing that most American expats here are reflexively overinsured, because the little/regular stuff should be out of pocket and the big stuff is SNS. Even the €5,000 bill becomes manageable if you are paying €8,000 a year.
We don't have private insurance here or Part B in the US, but we do have retiree insurance in the US, so we aren't a good example. But we are thinking seriously about MGen at the basic level (€2,200 for us) to cover some possible things. Surgery for a broken wrist in Lisbon, for example, is not likely to be practicable in the SNS system (the ortho beds are all occupied waiting with broken hips for post-surgical beds to free up), but it is perfectly practicable in Vila Nova de Gaia.