Early detection is key to cancer survival rates and England does not cover early screening as well as many other countries do and thus they are near the bottom of many cancer survival stats with the Us, Japan and France at the top of a 2008 study of five common cancers. In our country those on government healthcare fare much worse than those with private insurance, food for thought. It seems that poorer people everywhere fare worse than those with more. This article is very recent and informative for comparing life expectancy and treatments between countries. You may be surprised but if you take away accidental deaths(cars, violence, overdoses) guess which country has the highest life expectancy, yes the USA does. The new OECD ten year study has not been published yet and the chart in the link is the most recent data available so this might change but probally not that much. Here is a link that might be useful: wealth begets health

If you do your taxes at a tax office, they can generally give you an estimate on how much your taxes will be next year when you lose the exemption and education credits for your daughter. If you did them at home, take and do a practice set (for this year is okay), and remove your daughter and the education credit and see what the difference will be...that will give you a heads up on what to expect next year. You could change your W-4 withholdings at work. We recommend that highly as the tables have been reduced the past couple years and less is being withheld even if you haven't changed anything. It does NOT have to match your 1040, even married people can put on their W-4 "married but withholding at the single rate" and 0 dependents. That will the the highest rate withheld. THEN if that isn't enough, you can add extra to be taken out...if it's for Federal just write $10 on the additional withholding, if it's for state, be sure and write that down "MY STATE" and the amount. Here we have a big problem with our state not withholding enough and people that get money back from Federal end up owing state (ALL THE TIME!). IRA's could be a good way to decrease your taxes too. But I understand it's not always possible to come up with the extra money to sink into it. Recently had a client that had $2,000 due IRS, so he asked about an IRA, we got it worked out so that he put that $2,000 he would have paid IRS (Federal), into an IRA, he ended up with a refund coming back on his taxes. This way, he was still keeping his money. SO that is also something to think of during tax time. Otherwise you are correct...when couples lose their dependents, you don't have a lot of tax benefits anymore to use. One good thing this year is that the married filing joint deduction has gone up $1,700 more than previous years, so that helps a smidge. I hope that helps with the tax question part. It pays to plan ahead like this so you aren't standing there on April 15th with a huge bill due. Laura

I'm talking doctors mostly. Since I have to have health insurance I'd rather pay for something I might, possibly use as opposed to something I definitely won't use. I do not currently take any prescriptions - but I occasionally take things for Lyme disease.

Well around here many primary care physicians don't take ANY new patients regardless of how they pay. I've not heard of anyone having any worse problem because they are on Medicare. I managed to find a new PCP for DH when his retired but it was difficult being that I wanted someone who was educated in the US and spoke English as their first language. I love my internist but she's my age and I'm concerned about her retirement. I think I may switch to DH's doc while she's still taking new patients. Anyway regarding insurance coverage. I got my Cobra rates from HR today and they are HALF the price of a comparable plan available in the MN marketplace. So I would by all means go that route and it at least reduces the average per year price. It would be nice if I kept working until 18 months before Medicare but not sure that will happen - not willing to work 50-60 hours a week again and never be able to take vacation that doesn't turn into workation. Lots of great things going on at my company since a change in ownership including very interesting, challenging work for me but I'm just not into working all the time any more. Did that for many years and loved it but no longer. Friends have asked me for a few years when I plan to retire. I told them I had no plan but I'd know when it was time. I think the time is coming up soon.