Docs and Full-Timing

There are several issues you have to address when you decide to full-time.  You have to figure out which state do you want to make your residence in, what are you going to do about doctors, dentists, and the like, and how to handle your mail forwarding are just three of them.  We have chosen Florida as our state as I have talked about previously and have changed our mail forwarding to a company in Sarasota that is working out very well, so that leaves doctors, dentists, and the like :-)

As you know we spent 6 years in the Atlanta area before I retired the first time and 6 more years before I retired the second time, so all of our doctors and our dentist were obviously in that area.  What to do?  Do we keep them and make sure we come through Atlanta every year or 6 months, or do we switch to where we plan to spend some time almost every year, in Florida?  Our dentist is some one who we both like and trust completely.  I had that crown problem while in Alabama last year that turned into an absolute fiasco and caused me much discomfort.  Our dentist in Atlanta took care of it and now I'm good as gold.  So as to our dentist, we will stay with ours in Atlanta.  We aren't as attached to our doctors, mainly because we don't need to see them so much, thankfully.  Mine was also my FAA doctor, and I don't need that anymore, and Jan was seeing a doc in the same office just because it was convenient.  We decided to switch our family doc to Florida.  We both really like the doctor my mother has, so we decided to switch over to him.  Easier said than done.  His practice is full!  First Jan, becuse of our relation to my mom, managed to get an appointment several months out, and I decided I would wait and switch next year since I already had an appointment in Atlanta.  Well unexpected circumstances caused me to need to get a specialist, and now I have set up an appointment as I need a family doc as well.  Unfortunately, it isn't until May, after we had planned to leave, but mom is doing well these last few weeks so who knows what our schedule really is?

We have compromised for now, dentist and dermatologist in Atlanta, other docs here in Florida, and we believe we will switch everything to Florida in the next year or so.  With all the upcoming changes in the medical world, it is probably much better to be taking care of this sooner rather than later as the dust settles with Obamacare.