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Good day.

I am retired USN, married to a Filipina going on 30 years. Within the next few years, we will be making the move to Calbayog City, Western Samar where we have land to build our home on.

Our plan is to travel around the Philippines to new areas that we have not seen. After many visits to Subic Bay, two shore tours in Subic Bay and various trips over the past few years. We have seen a lot of Samar, Leyte, and Cebu. We took a trip to Bantayan island last year and had a great time.

A friend has just moved to your area and has been a long time expat living in the Philippines. I would be interested in seeing posts from other retired US military and what they have learned in living in this area in regards to medical, etc.

I look forward to catching up and reading the forum on here and maybe add Dumaguete on our trip list for Feb/March next year.

 

Curious

A few days have passed with 84 views and no comments.

Is there a problem with my intro to the board?

 

Hi!

I to am ex USN and married to filipina.. although i'm not living in PI.

There might not be any retired military on board with medical advice.. ;-)

congratulations on reaching retirment though.

 

Thanks Rottweiler.

Retired in Jan. 1996.

Been working since in Printing for about 6 years and now for the last 8 plus as a DOD Police Officer in a local Naval Base/Shipyard.

Looking at maybe making the move in two years to the Philippines. Winter there and come back home in the spring to visit my children/grandchildren.

Most retired military that I have met live farther north close to the old Naval Bases.

There are a few in the Calbayog City area that I have met and a few in Tacloban area that I have met or talking to.

The biggest question for any expat, no matter if they are retired military or on SS, is the medical availabilities. Since I am rated by the VA at 80% service connected, I can use the VA clinic in Manila. On our last trip to Samar and Leyte, my wife got sick and had to spend a few days in a local hospital in Calbayog. That was an eye opener for sure. I felt like I went back in time to say the 40's in some of the equipment I saw.

Any BM on here who has lived in the area here can provide some useful information on the local hospitals and clinics. I only could find one hospital on the Tricare Pacific Philippines lists for Dumaguete City. If anyone can give an insight to how it is, it would greatly be appreciated.

 

Keep looking at the older posts, they are filled with info on the quality of the hospitals and health insurance in the area. I am surprised that you can even get care in Manila and I myself would like to know more about that. Probably the reason most vets stay in the northern provinces. I know we still have some operations in the PI but access to the facilities may be extremely limited. From earlier discussions with other vets it appears that all we have available is an overseas version of tricare meaning get the service, pay for it, and then file for re-imbursement and hope that the procedure is documented well enough and covered. I am not encouraged about that.

I think the problem is that most expats expect the PI to be more developed, but of course it is not. If you compare life here from a western standard than there is really only one city in the PI and that is Manila. Well Cebu is a close second.

BTW what is the name of hospital on your list, you have to tell us what it is if you want feedback.

 

Pedro

Here is what I found on the TriCare Pacific page.

Holy Child Hospital, Legaspi Street, Dumaguete.

If you are interested in locating any Tricare Hospitals or clinics, here is the listing for the Philippines.

Pacific Certified Providers

 

Hey Barrio, wttb. don't forget to share some of those great pics

 

If you will be living in Samar, you should probably consider medical facilities in Cebu or Manila which would be closer to you than Dumaguete. (At least Manila is closer in terms of time on a flight.)

Tri-Care lists as certified providers two of the three tertiary hospitals in Cebu: Cebu Docs and Perpetual Succor.

It also lists Makati Medical Center (Makati City) and Asian Hospital (Alabang) in Metro Manila which would be two better hospitals in the country.

 

Thanks for the information.

My neighbor here is a retired US Navy Filipino who has a condo in Makati and is in the process of selling all his rental properties here. We have talked and I know that if anything seriously goes wrong with me or the Asawa in Calbayog, we will not make it. He is already check in with Makati Medical and said that it is the best in the Philippines. He understands we desire to live in Calbayog as it will be close to her family. But still questions the idea why being so far away from a better hospital for care.

This is the one concern I have is medical care. Even if we just winter in the Philippines and come back here, it is still a concern that one day we might need the best there is to survive.

I might be in good health today at my age, but it only takes one accident or a sickness to occur and then we are put into a situation of getting to the hospital.

 

Good day sir.

Once I figure out how on here, I will post a few.

But you are the number one photo guy on here.

Enjoy your new location.

BR