The NHS is wonderful! Having spent the winter months in the Philippines I am now back in the UK. Whilst in PI we helped our young niece who has terminal cancer so can testify from first hand experience. The care was fine, but very expensive. This has to be considered when making a decision on whether to live there permanently. If you already know you need regular medical help then the NHS is a hard thing to leave behind. (Along with the BBC, cricket, good beer and the English summer).
Visiting the Philippines for a year is going to be possible but without a Filipina wife you will not get a Balikbayan visa on entry. You will only get 21 days, although I think you can get 59 by pre-arrangement. After that you will have to extend every few weeks which is a nuisance and costs. Travel agents will do it for you, at a small additional cost. If you decide to marry then getting a year will be automatic, but you still need to go out and re-enter. Special retirement visas are available but are complicated and require the deposit of funds. You will not be allowed in without a return ticket but don't worry too much about that. We travel via Hong Kong and book the leg into the Philippines on Cebu Pacific with whom we book a return flight for around the time we plan to return and then alter as needed. The cost of change is minimal. We do the same with the flights into HK.
