Since 2010 we’ve been offering Panama Relocation Tours 7-night 6-day all-inclusive tours to educate you about relocating to and living in Panama. We’ve helped 1000’s of people relocate to Panama the easy, stress-free way!

We know it’s a big decision to relocation to a different country, or even sign up for a Panama Relocation Tour, so we offer monthly Q&A calls to answer some of your questions about life in Panama.

This is a replay of the October 2019 Retire in Panama Q & A Conference Call.    If you have further questions, please email us at [email protected]

Note, during this call, a question came up about getting international health insurance.  At 65, I pay $2500 a YEAR for international health insurance which covers me in Panama, in North America or anywhere else in the world.

When I turned 65 this year, I had a big decision to make about getting Medicare in the United States or relying exclusively on my international health insurance.  I decided to get the minimum requirements for Medicare.  When you get closer to 70 years old, international health insurance is either every expensive ( like $5000 a year) or not available though some insurance carriers.  Many international insurance carriers have an age restrictions.  Therefore, if you are closer to 70 years old when you relocate to Panama, and are a United States citizen, we recommend that you keep Medicare in the United States and get Panama only health insurance which is super affordable and has no age restriction.

If you drop out of Medicare but later want to move back to the United States, or just use Medicare occasionally, you’ll have to pay a penalty to get back in to the system.

A few days ago I was on an expat forum to answer questions about relocating to Panama. One person expressed an interest in a certain town in Panama. Then several people told her what a terrible place it is. So, she said she decided not to even go visit that area. That’s a big mistake. The 200 expats who live in that town in Panama absolutely love living there. Just because one or two people don’t like it, does not mean that you won’t like living there.

You need to see a variety of areas in Panama to decide what’s right for you. Of course, we think a Panama Relocation Tours is the best way to see a variety of different areas in Panama and learn about the pros and cons of each area.

You cannot trust information on expat forums, yahoo groups or facebook groups. You’ll get a lot of conflicting information. Some of it is accurate but some of it is definitely false. Just yesterday someone on facebook was talking about a Panama Visa you can get that only cost $100. It is simply not true.

You can’t trust information in books about living in Panama that were written 5 or 10 years ago. That information is very dated. Panama is changing so fast.

You can’t trust websites about living in Panama because some of the people who run those sites don’t even live in Panama! But they will fly to Panama to sell you a lot if you are interested.

Last week, I was listening to a conference call that a new tour company did. He gave out false information five times during the call. It’s scary to think that anyone would rely on his information.

Sadly, you can’t trust websites about residential developments in Panama either. Some of those websites show artists renditions of what they neighborhood “could” look like but it is absolutely not what it really looks like today. You need come check it out yourself. What you see today is what you are buying. That marina or club house that the developer promises may or may not become a reality. Never buy, or rent, anything in Panama without seeing it first!

Your well-meaning friends and family will probably tell you that you are crazy for even considering relocating to Panama.  But it’s YOUR life so only you can decide if relocating to Panama is right for you.

It’s not just Panama. This information applies to every country! [Read more…]