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NEW YEAR PERSPECTIVE – 2015  About this time a year ago, I sat down and compiled some reflections on what had happened in the previous year. The year of 2013 was a period of some significant changes in our lives. It was a year in which speculations, the “just what if’s” and other assorted wonderings were translated into action – we actually became Expatriates in Italy. And then in 2014, we spent our first entire year in our Italian home. Last year’s reflection seemed to concentrate on the lingering question of trying to better understand the process that culminated in a substantial change in life-style. A curse of the aging process can involve wanting to be sure you not only did something positive but that you also did it for the right reasons. By the time we have reached a certain age we may have acquired enough bumps and bruises along the way to start to figure out that motive can have a pretty strong influence on outcome. At this juncture, we have been Elective Residents legally admitted into Italy for now a little over eighteen months. We still have, and will continue to maintain, our citizenship status in the U.S.A. Although we are not Italian Citizens, we have all the protections that the Italian Constitution affords any of its citizens. We also have been permitted to buy into the Italian National Health System (Tessera Sanitaria) by paying an annual premium. At the current U.S. Dollar to Euro exchange rate, that premium in the Provence of Ascoli Piceno works out to something like $465 for both of us for the entire year. In the process of joining the health system we chose our own primary care physician. We then made an appointment and met with him to establish a relationship and to provide him with the detailed health records we had brought with us from California. The Doctor spent nearly an hour with us and reviewed the records in detail asking questions as regards present status and reviewed our prescriptions. At the end of a very pleasant visit, we shook hands and were not charged a single Euro. And we understand, if immobilized, doctors here will make house calls....

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