Back in the 1600′s, a young man fell in love with a beautiful young woman he saw in the bazaar. Not an uncommon event, I’m sure.

They married a few years later, and lived happily together until she died while giving birth to their 14th (!) child.

The husband was devastated, and decided to remember his dear wife with a stunning monument.

Four hundred years later, that monument is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, visited by millions every year.

The young man was Shah Jahan, and his wife, Arjumand Banu Begum, was known after her marriage as Mumtaz Mahal. The monument, in Agra, India, is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

It’s known as the Taj Mahal.

And here’s a little Valentine’s Day gift from me — a new list of expat and travel sites to follow. Ah, if only there were a way to deliver chocolate through a browser. . .

Expat Sites

1. The Social Expat A comprehensive site with lots of interesting information and stories for expats.
2. Expatriating Julia, a British expat in the Netherlands
3. 4 Kids, 20 Suitcases and a Beagle, a great suggestion from reader Aisha Ashcroft Ashraf last month. Very funny.
4. Malta: Moving Up, On and Away, an expat’s guide to the island of Malta. If you like Europe but want to live in an English-speaking country, Malta might be your best choice.
5. How to Get By in Malta. Another expat’s guide to living and working in Malta.
6. The FrancoAmerican Flophouse. a serial expat from the US living and raising a family in France.
7. Where Mt. Fuji Meets Matterhorn, an expat from Switzerland living in Japan.
8. Colombia (official tourism site). With Colombia being talked about so much as an up-and-coming expat destination, I thought I should include a couple of Colombia-related sites.
9. Colombia Travel.
10. Living in India, a guide to expatriating to India

Travel

11. Wandering Trader
12. YTravelBlog
13. Jessie on a Journey
14. Curious Places. This is a very cool site featuring pictures of some of the most unusual places and buildings in the world.

photo by Christian Haugen on flickr

Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, Malta and France all received positive comments. One poster said Japan’s was “the worst I ever experienced.” The US was mentioned favorably, but “only if you have good insurance. Prices are about 5 to 10 times the costs of France or Belgium.” This kind of anecdotal information is interesting, but not all that useful.

Of course to most expats and would-be expats, especially those of us who are approaching retirement age, health care is an important consideration in where we choose to live. What is its quality? Is it at least as good as what I’m used to? How expensive is it? How accessible is it? Will I have to be in a major city to have quality care available?

So what’s a concerned health care consumer to do?

There’s an interesting bubble chart on the Columbia University website, showing the average life expectancy and health care spending by country.

The US is way off by itself as the biggest spender. But our life expectancy (77 years) lags behind Japan (85), Switzerland, Australia, France, Canada, Norway, Spain, New Zealand, Austria, Korea, Portugal, UK, Luxembourg and Denmark, all of whom spend considerably less (around half!) than we do per capita.

The WHO (World Health Organization) has published a listing of medical care by country. Compiled in the year 2000, it’s a bit outdated, but might provide a good starting point. You can see it here.

A Few Considerations

First, I think it’s safe to assume that the care you’ll receive in rural areas will not be as up-to-date or comprehensive as the care you can receive in major cities. That’s true in the US just as much as anywhere else.

If living in a bustling metro area is not your taste, how fast and easy is transportation to those areas you’re considering? Use your common sense – if your dream retirement is on a remote beach or mountain-top retreat that’s an 8-hour drive over mostly dirt roads to get to the nearest city, that will be an issue in accessing quality health care. If it’s an hour or two over good roads, you’ll have significantly better access.

Are there hot spots of medical tourism in the country you’re considering? If so, you can be pretty well assured those doctors will speak English, have up-to-date training and use modern equipment. According to Business Week:

“The low cost and high quality of medical service is a big selling point for Singapore and Thailand, which have heavily promoted medical tourism in recent years. Hospital costs are as much as one-half what they would cost in the U.S.” Read the entire article here

Other popular medical tourism destinations include Panama, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Malaysia, South Korea, India and Israel. There are plenty of websites which discuss medical tourism, as any Google search will show.

Once you’ve narrowed down some possible destinations with health care facilities that will meet your needs, conduct your own research. When you visit the area, ask a lot of questions, find out what other expats do for health care, visit the hospitals and clinics if you can.

Ultimately, as with any other aspect of your move, you need to just do it.