Medicare Update

It appears there is no residency requirement for Medicare. Once you qualify through age or ESRD, and have enough work credits, you get Part-A for free and can pay for Part-B. So once I get my Medicare card, as long as I still have ESRD, I can move to Ontario for 5 months to get OHIP, while still keep Medicare for health insurance in the US. I’m not quite there yet on Medicare though the second agent at the Social Security office said my Medicare coverage should start on 1/1/2020.

I see two ways to do this. Either move to Canada and find private insurance or pay out-of-pocket (Globe and Mail said only $60k/year or about ~$46k USD) for dialysis for as long as it takes to qualify and apply for OHIP (8-9 months), or move to somewhere near the border. For example, if I lived in Fort Erie, Ontario, I could find a dialysis center in Buffalo, New York, which is right across the river. and travel there three times a week for the 8-9 months. There are plenty of cheap houses for sale in Fort Erie:

And… dialysis centers in Buffalo, NY. Looks like I will have to deal with DaVita or Fresenius but probably doable.

Once I get the OHIP card, I can then travel all over Ontario and have insurance coverage for dialysis, as long as I maintain residency in Ontario. We were talking about getting a condo in Mississauga at one point so maybe that’s still an option?

OK, I’ll stop fantasizing about multiple government funded healthcare and concentrate on recovery and getting that kidney transplant.