As you likely already realize, if you're an American living, retiring, or traveling overseas, your Medicare doesn't travel with you. Currently the United States prohibits Medicare from paying for medical services for retirees outside the country and its territories. The nearly half-million retired Americans living overseas and the millions more who travel extensively abroad, must either go without care until they return to the United States or pay out-of-pocket for the care they need.

At Live and invest Overseas, we see this as a fundamentally unfair situation for retired Americans who have paid into Medicare their entire working lives. This restriction on Medicare coverage is also unfair to American taxpayers because it ignores the potentially huge cost savings to Medicare offered by lower-cost healthcare options abroad.

In 2011, the non-partisan Center for Medicare Portability (CMP) was founded. Their mission is to allow retired Americans who simply wish to pursue their dreams or seek a lower cost of living overseas to have access to the Medicare benefits they have paid for throughout their lives.

If portable Medicare is achieved it would be monumental. Expats would be able to receive medical services from world class professionals in their country of residence, whether that be Panama, Belize, or Mexico.  

At Live and Invest Overseas, we will keep you posted on the progress of portable Medicare and other overseas issues through our daily e-letters.