Tuesday, July 21, 2015

My Poland Relocation: No to Ski Instructing, Yes to Health Insurance

Did some research on ski instructing today. Probably going to pass on it - apparently it's either basically baby-sitting kids, or baby-sitting adults. Plus I'd rather be skiing and Gaming than teaching. To that end, I might look into skiing in Sochi (skiing + Russian women = win?).

Got international travel and health insurance with WorldNomads early this afternoon, after spending the morning researching and looking. As far as I understand, all long-term expats should get international travel and health insurance.

I went with WorldNomads instead of International SOS, Medex, or anything from insuremytrip.com because:

1) WorldNomads is a well-regarded brand (at the least, folks like Lonely Planet and Nomadic Matt are willing to advertise for them),
2) International SOS was more expensive and seems to be geared more towards serving companies and their expats, and
3) WorldNomads allowed me to buy even though I'm already abroad. International SOS says you must buy in advance, and while I might've been able to trick their website, I'm sure as an insurance company, they'd find a way to make that work against me in the event of a claim.

Cost was $1050 for 12 months.

averagebritguy Wrote: Sounds like a reasonable deal - I've never used them as they are always more expensive, and I get some euro health cover anyway. You get way you pay for I guess...skimping on insurance/health cover in a country with pretty poor general health services is never a good idea. One thing to keep in mind is, that with most policy's you have to pay with your own money and claim it back minus excess, so you'll need to keep a bit of money in the bank just in case. Any updates on how your settling in to your new home?

Yeah, unfortunately, as an American, our super-expensive medical system somehow doesn't cover us abroad. In fact, had I gone with Medex, which offers "outside the US only" plans as well, I would've paid half! But I decided to play it safe, at least off the bat.

Also, from what I've read, and from what little I've seen, Poland probably has reasonable health care. But, I'd rather not find out after, say, a drunk driver hits me while I'm walking. (Drunk driving is apparently higher here than the EU average, despite what I'm told is a zero tolerance policy).

Plus, if I go somewhere else, like Ukraine, which is more likely not to have decent healthcare, I'm still covered by the same policy. In fact, only Cuba isn't covered (North Korea, here I come! lol).

As for having cash on hand for upfront medical expenses, I'm good. I've always had a cash float in the bank for these kinds of things.

By settling into my new home, if you mean life ex-Game, then yes, the place is starting to feel more like home. Will probably go sign up at the gym tomorrow and resume lifting.

But, if you mean life + Game, then this place is definitely better than home. Ran some daygame this afternoon and, among other highlights, almost same-day-laid an Anglosphere tourist (pretty, but 30s, & definitely not wife material). Ran into LMR for a variety of reasons, most of which should've been under my control, but definitely a good learning experience. Also had fun Facebook-closing a cutely shy Polish girl wearing some nice make-up. Fourthly, I saw the crazy RSD guy from the weekend leaving - but he was approaching 3+ sets, even with his bags in tow! Finally, one of my Tinder leads seems to be in the early stages of panning out - at the least, I'm definitely passing The Jumbotron test (she's texting more than me), so now I've got her on WhatsApp.

It may also help - and may also be getting me more matches - now that I've switched my main Tinder pic back to a well-shot photo of me doing one of my favorite - and exciting - hobbies. I've also changed up the photos so some of them have returned to show me with friends and having fun, but mixed in with the professionally shot (but just me) photos I paid for.

Brodiaga Wrote: Im not an expert, but AFAIK expat US citizens don't have to buy health insurance in the US
CleanSlate Wrote: So as long as they stay off of US soil for at least 330 days of the year, right?

Good question. Short answer is yes, from: https://www.healthcare.gov/exemptions-to...zen-abroad

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