JDiver, thanks for the reminders and links.
My husband very recently had the need for emergency eye surgery while at home. I ended up driving him to another city for the care he needed as it was a New Year's holiday time and the local medical folks had closed their office. The answering service refered him to a doc who was willing to wait for me to drive to her office. It was a nerve racking drive in heavy traffic.
We were ping ponged around the DFW area from one doc to another until he had repair surgery a couple days later.
You just never know when the unexpected can happen. We were too close to home for the travel insurance to help out with expenses but our traditional medicare policy has worked well so far (no travel expenses covered). The part of the travel insurance that I really felt would have helped was the referral service....not available to us so close to home.
He seems to be doing well, but it was a reminder to us that you don't need to be far from home to be searching madly for medical care especially on a holiday.
My best wishes to all for a healthy and happy New Year!