Patrick & I have pretty much decided that we want to try moving to the US for a year to live off our savings in a warmer place than England while we both write and Patrick starts his MFA program. But there's one issue that's still holding us back - the question of health insurance. Back in 2002, I went for a 4-month period without health insurance, and it sucked - I couldn't afford to go to the doctor so I had various untreated illnesses that didn't get sorted out until I got to Vienna, by which point they'd become real problems. Since then, both of us have had rotten health in the last couple of years, and I've been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which, for me, goes along with fairly regular throat infections. So there's no way we can afford to go without health insurance for a year...but I have no idea how to find the best American health insurer, or whether we could even afford one on our savings.

We had already been worrying about this for a while, and reading Janet's horror story about the medical issues that are making her move back to Singapore from the US just reinforced my determination to get this sorted out before we waste too much money on immigration applications. I love the idea of moving to the US for a year, seeing more of American family & friends, and getting to enjoy the parts of American culture that I do miss...but the National Health Service is a big shining reason to stay in the UK, and even if we went outside of England to any other parts of the EU, we'd still be beautifully covered for healthcare...and that's a very hard advantage to turn down, especially given my recent health problems.

So: does anyone know of a good health insurer that you can recommend? Or a cheap one? Any advice or suggestions would be wonderful.

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In other news, there's a beautiful fog filling up the green fields behind our house and the forested valley below. I love fog - not driving in it, of course, but watching it through the windows or even walking through it feels so magical, like stepping into a different world. Mmm, lovely. Patrick just phoned me from the city center and said the fog had already cleared up in town, so it'll probably be gone from here within an hour or so...but in the meantime, I'm really loving it.