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Deciding where to retire and then moving into an area is often a daunting task. Especially as we get older change is often hard on us… several decisions have to be thoughtfully considered. Such as, do we move next to our children or grandchildren? In addition, if we do, which family pack to we choose to move near? Alternatively, do we move to a place with a friendly climate than the current climate we live in? What is the medical community like? Will they accept our insurance? How health insurance friendly is the medical community? Unfortunately, during this time in our lives, we simply cannot put a blindfold over our eyes turn around three times and put a pen on the map and say, “this is where we are going to retire”. Our carefree days of choice an happenstance are far better left to memories. We are at a point on our lives where our decisions need to be based more in fact than simple armchair analogies. Economists often use supply and demand curves as a tool to make decisions about the market place. More importantly, how a change in price will change the demand or supply for a good. We often recommend this analogy to our clients to help them make a decision about their health insurance. Ultimately this is used as a tool, to help them decide if the place they chose to retire or the current place they are living in is a safe place for them to live and retire in regards to their healthcare needs. In other words, we ask them to do an opportunity cost analysis in regards to their health insurance and medical needs, which is one of the most important decisions we will make for ourselves as we age. We briefly explain to our clients that when making a decision on where to retire you must also consider how health insurance friendly the medical community is in the community you choose to retire in. If the medical community is not very health insurance friendly, your retirement might not be as comfortable as to a community with a more health insurance friendly environment. We recommend looking for a community that widely accepts all health insurance – one that does not discriminate. The meat and potatoes of our philosophy is to be a smart and savvy shopper… shop for a community that has a medical community with a somewhat elastic demand and supply curve, in other words find medical providers and suppliers who will bill all health insurance. Watch out for a community that has an inelastic demand, a medical community that supports one insurance provider but does not support other health insurance choices that might actually be better for the medical consumer. The lack of insurance choices can raise the price of a good without much loss in demand for the product because there are no other options. The price and product become inefficient and the consumer suffers… better known as a monopoly or even in some cases an oligopoly. More importantly, a good or service is considered to be highly elastic if a slight change in price leads to a sharp change in the quantity demanded or supplied. Usually these kinds of products are readily available in the market and a person may not necessarily need them in his or her daily life. On the other hand, an inelastic good or service is one in which changes in price witness only modest changes in the quantity demanded or supplied, if any at all. These goods tend to be things that are more of a necessity to the consumer in his or her daily life such as health insurance. However, when there are more choices in regards to health insurance the consumer has more control of the price and that is very important to retirees. There are a couple ways to find out if your community is health insurance friendly. You can call the State Insurance Commissioner’s Office. You can do research on Medicare.gov or contact your local SHIP office.