House rental, boat insurance, and health care

We have not yet rented out our house, and must seriously begin to consider our options if we have not rented it out by mid-September, which could include making our way back home earlier than planned.  We so don’t want to do this, so if you know of anyone who needs to rent a home in Menlo Park over the next school year, please pass on our information. 

We’ve recently had to make some other decisions.  We changed our marine insurance to one that does not require us to be north of 27 degrees latitude during hurricane season.  This didn’t make logical sense given that hurricanes do reach north of 27 degrees, and that there are ‘hurricane holes’ south of that.  In addition, there are many things you can do to prepare your boat should a hurricane pass by, often stipulated in the insurance contract (lash down sails, remove all canvas, etc.).  We know of only a handful of others who were required to have their boats north of 27 degrees in order to be covered for a loss from a named hurricane. Our insurance agent came up with even higher premiums after we discussed it with him, and so we’ve opted to go elsewhere.  Our new insurance, which is more reasonably priced, has given us a few more options of where to leave our boat when we head to northern CA next month, including keeping it right here in Puerto Escondido.

Another decision we have had to make is whether to keep health insurance.  We have a catastrophic policy that would provide us with medical coverage in Mexico in an emergency and would fly us home if needed. This is all about $300 per year total. In addition to this, we’ve kept our health insurance in the US but it doesn’t cover us out of country.  Our premiums have just gone up to nearly $1000 per month, and given that we haven’t used it at all this year, our deductibles have not been met either.  Many cruisers have opted not to carry any health insurance, given that Mexican doctors’ visits/tests are so inexpensive and are reputed to be just as good as many American doctors. I know someone who had a mammogram done in La Paz for $50, and wasn’t charged for a resulting ultrasound either. In any case, we must now decide whether to risk not having any insurance against the astronomical costs of the insurance, or loosing continuous coverage.  The jury is still out on how to gamble this one.

-Barbara
Puerto Escondido, BCS, Mexico