Week 544-545 - The State of Our Union - 01-22-2017

The State of Our Union

As of January 2017

The Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that "all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Louis Brandeis was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939. Based on the Tenth Amendment Justice Brandeis described each US State as a "laboratory for democracy". Each state can define it own laws, taxes and regulations. This makes each state different and allows citizens to move to enjoy different benefits. You must declare one state as your domicile, "your home" and to whom you will pay your taxes.

[This travelogue is very valuable for full time RV travelers and most likely boring to others. Read at your own peril.]
Our domicile was California in 2006 on 4-5-6 when we purchased the MotherShip. We paid $12,977.14 in sales tax. We could have moved first to Oregon and paid zero! As full time travelers we have the option to choose any state we want as our domicile. While taxes, laws and regulations are onerous, we were "Californians" and put up with it. The annual license plate tag started at $1,400 and declined each year. By 2010 it was down to $600. Then the Governator raised the tag fee and it was back to $1,300. We began to research the experiments in the other "laboratories". And we moved and moved. Whee!

From California to Tennessee to South Dakota to Texas to Arizona now back to California!

What's going on? We read a book similar to "Choosing Your RV Home Base" by Roundabout Publications. It describes many factors to consider before moving.

State Income, Property and other taxes
Vehicle license fees, drivers license
Voter registration
Vehicle insurance
Health insurance

All of the above items must be completed to become state residents.

MotherShip life began in California and it was good. Income tax can be up to 13 percent, but our rate was low. The Progressive motorhome policy for full timers was $1,983. Our catastrophic health plan had a reasonably low fee. We rented our house and thanks to Proposition 13 our property taxes were low. In 2010 DMV license tags were raised to $1,300 and that increase was too much to take. So we left Avila Beach and Yosemite National Park and headed to Tennessee.

Moving your domicile always requires an address in your new state. At a minimum you need to receive mail for your vehicle and driver's licenses. Our good friends John and Rosie offered their Nashville address as ours. Moving to Tennessee was pleasant. Still in California we overnighted our forms and fees and included a return overnight envelope. The bureau in Tennessee overnighted our motorhome license plate. So in two days we were Volunteers. That did not last long. We needed to drive to Tennessee and meet all the other requirements. One of those is to have a deed to your property or a rental agreement. We had neither. Too bad as the motorhome license tag fee was $68, just $1,232 less than California.

Okay, we're learning; no Tennessee without property. What next? We found from our "Choosing" book that South Dakota, Texas and Florida are three of the best states for full time travelers. So in 2011 we set off for South Dakota, home to Mount Rushmore and Wall Drug. South Dakota has no income tax, 4% sales tax and welcomes full timers. The only resident requirement for SD is to stay one night in an RV park. We stayed at an RV park owned by the mailing service we chose. We did that and brought our RV park receipt, imprinted with both of our names, to the license bureau. We filled out our forms and in 10 minutes and $20 later we had our driver's licenses in hand. Not a temporary piece of paper, but the actual license. No waiting, low fees and nice people. Our MH license tag was $400 and the MH insurance was $1,349 for a total of $1,749. This compares to California's total of $3,283. We like South Dakota. Note that Progressive in South Dakota was over $3,800. We switched to National Interstate. There are relatively few motorhomes in the world and an insurance company's experience can change radically every year. You should also check with new companies when you move and every year after that.

We lived in South Dakota for four years, 2011 to 2014. Then we moved to Texas. Why? ObamaCare! For 20 years we had a high deductible catastrophic health insurance plan. We paid $50,000 over the 20 year and yet paid cash for almost all services. We thought it was time to get a lower deductible health plan as "growing old is not for the faint at heart". We applied for an ObamaCare plan in South Dakota. But, it could only be used in the state. Not good for full timers. So research starts again and Texas wins. No income tax but sales tax is 8.25%. That's okay, we don't buy much. Tags were $480, MH insurance $1,995 total $2,475. Moving to Texas is a bit complicated. It required an Escapee's mailing address in Livingston, Texas; a MH driving test that started with parallel parking! and the other items from above. For full detail see How to Become a Real Texan. We received a good Blue Cross plan for all states. Ellen needed a knee replacement. Sadly, it did not happen until December 2, 2015. The operation was at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California. Ellen received three weeks of physical therapy and then the insurance was canceled. Blue Cross lost $400,000,000 on Texas ObamaCare policies. We were thankful for our ObamaCare policy but now it was gone.

Our next search took weeks. We were looking for a state that had an ObamaCare policy we could use. HealthCare.gov offered us a Arizona PPO policy for all states. We checked out the costs in Arizona. Tags plus MH insurance would be $1,456. Great! So on 12-29-2015 we drove from Southern California to Arizona, paid our fees and took our tests. Our mail would be received by Pete's sister in Green Valley, Arizona. We returned to California and the fireworks started. First on New Year's Eve and then when we found out that United Health Care told us that our policy could only be used in Arizona. We called HealthCare.gov and explained our situation. We needed an all-states PPO plan and United Health Care said we had an in-state POS plan. ObamaCare had no PPO plan for us in Arizona. Our move to Arizona was for naught. We did drive back to AZ once to meet our primary care doctor and have one physical therapy session. Outside of AZ we could only get physical therapy paying cash. Gosh!

So went 2016. Starting November 15, 2016 the open enrollment period opened for ObamaCare. Our research this time took us all the way to December 30, 2016. We found an all-state PPO plan in California. Oh no, back to high fees! Surprisingly, in 2017 the MH tag was now only $274. Wow, down over $1,000 since 2011. The total tag and MH insurance was $1,300. To get this CoveredCalifornia policy took over 20 hours on the phone including a solid 6 hours on the last possible day to sign up. More than 75% of the phone time was waiting on hold with CoveredCalifornia and Social Security. But, now it is done and we are once again Californians. During the sign up process half the agents we spoke with said our health policy will not work out of state. Others said it would. It was incredibly frustrating that no one could confirm this until we received our ID card.

Ellen's knee has hurt since the original knee replacement surgery. It hurts more than before the replacement. We met since with four doctors or P/As and finally found Dr. Hedley in Phoenix. He claims Ellen's knee is loose and needs to be reopened and tightened up. We had this scheduled for December 2016, but by the time United Health Care approved the surgery, Dr. Hedley had gone on Christmas break. We are now scheduled for January 26th, 2017 with Dr. Hedley. We appreciate your prayers that the surgery approval is real and that Ellen can once again walk without pain.

As you can see, as a full timer you can move to any state. Some are easier than others. Why can't all governments be like South Dakota? No income tax, 4% sales tax, five years with state budget surplus, in and out of the license bureau in 10 minutes without an appointment and an above-board welcome to full time RV travelers. Oh well, nice to know one laboratory had an experiment that ended well.

State of our union? Last August 3rd was our 42nd anniversary, so the state of OUR union is strong.

With love, Pete, Ellen and Mandy

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24

Photos from Jan 2017