re: Have you moved from a larger to city to a small town / countryside? How was it?

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it's a huge problem

any decent doctor is a 25-90 minute drive (depending on specialty) from where i grew up (county of less than 15k people, no stoplights, extremely low income). the county has a very old and unhealthy population and transportation to doctors and hospitals is a big issue, especially when there is snow and ice on the ground.

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My dad and my uncle both have a little land (40 acres and 120 respectively) in a county in Georgia that is separated from South Carolina by the Savannah river. Both of them have had to move in with family because the health care system just is not conducive to folks in their mid to late 80s living there. It is a great area...folks are as nice as you can find, the hunting and fishing is as good as it gets in Georgia and you can do any damn thing you please on your land. There are a couple of GPs and even a hospital, or what passes for a hospital, in the county, but even an ambulance ride is a gamble. Both of them have been transported to hospitals since leaving their places...they'd probably be dead now if they had not left. There is nothing to be done about it, there just aren't enough people to warrant much more than basic health care. Its something a lot of people fail to consider when they retire to a rural area. It is a fantastic way of life but healthcare in retirement is a big consideration for most people.