In response to your question regarding cost of living, I think most people are responding considering what their specific requirements are compared to where they were living before. As with anywhere, actual "costs of living" can vary greatly depending on your particular life style and where you live in the country. I moved to Panama City over 3 years ago from NC and I can only really comment about city living. Generally speaking, I find that necessities, such as food, housing, and utilities are 25-40% less here than they were in NC. However, other items such as telephone/internet service, sporting goods, automobiles, electronics, etc. are about the same and sometimes more than in NC. Restaurants/ Night Clubbing can be less expensive or more expensive depending on your tastes and where you go. I go out to eat quite a bit and have found many very good restaurants with entrées in the $5-10 range or you can go to places with the $15-30 range. I can go to one of the casino and watch a stage show or dance to a live band and drink $1 a glass beer all night or I can go to one of the new hi-tech night clubs pay a $20/ couple cover charge and $3.50 for a beer. All depends on what you want to do! One note on electricity costs is in order Panama has high electricity rates (~$0.13/KWH) However, once again, depending on your previous experiences, that could be a big savings. NO heating and NO or minimal AC needs. My personal light bill runs $45-60 / month here versus $200-300 in NC. Another factor is that I went from a 3000 sq. ft. house to a 1200 sq.ft. place. (I didn't have the need for all those empty rooms and made certain I didn't get back into that trap) Therefore, coupling that with the fact that the cost per sq. ft. of housing was lower represented a tremendous savings for me but maybe not for the person that sees the lower price per sq.ft. and decides to purchase the 10 hectare estate and build a 6000 sq.ft. mansion. I would suggest that during your initial visit here that you spend as much time "window/pricing" shopping as you do looking at the scenery to get a feel for those things that you purchase in your day to day life. Go to the grocery, hardware, clothing, furnature and appliance stores and look at the prices.

As for heath care here in the city there are plenty of doctors, many that speak English and other languages. Many doctors were partially or fully educated in the US. You can go to a general practitioner for $7-15 for a routine visit. You can get private health insurance inexpensively that covers you in Panama fairly easy. Panama has no national heathcare coverage for expats. I currently have a policy that covers me age 54 and my wife 43 for $64/ month. There are also doctors here that accept and or file claims for many of the major insurance companies. As you may well be aware you can get major medical type coverage that covers you world wide also.

I dont know if this answers your questions or not but I hope it helps.

Dennis


I've read most of the posts but I haven't seen much discussion on healthcare in Panama. I'm interested in retiring to Panama City or vicinity within the next 6-8 mths. My question is, what is the best method of getting healthcare and what is the quality of healthcare in Panama?

Although most people on the board continue to say that Panama has a low cost of living, I don't know of anyway of comparing costs. Is there a sight on the web that would compare cost of living among various countries? I have just gotten back from SE Asia and it seems like Panama is significantly more expensive than say Thailand.
thanks

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