To think the USA and UK should become 1 country

[FortyDoorsToNowhere]

As the title says.

I think it should happen, not sure why exactly other than to pool out resources.

Oh and most health insurance in the US doesn't cover meds.

Again, that might be different now with Obamacare, but it certainly used to be true.

In many ways I love my home country and will never relinquish my citizenship. In other ways I want to take the US to bits and rebuild it into what it should be. Most of the US is pretty good. Parts of it are fucking awful.

I'm glad to live in the UK.

I've lived in both. The OP's question shows the misapprehension that because we speak a common language we are " more or less the same".
We aren't, and never will be. You may as well suggest that the UK and Japan become one country.
Oh, and I found malt vinegar in the gourmet section, which made me laugh!

Only read the first page, but I did laugh at fucking big bridge.

A bridge would be awesome though, for visiting. With a hotel in the middle.

A bridge with a floating hotel!

Or an underwater tunnel!

Which I think was actually considered once.

It has been thought about and there was a film in 1935!

If Medicare is so good how come people go bankrupt over health bills (& can't get insurance if they've had - for example - cancer).

I quite liked the Japanese health care system fwiw. But you probably needed family around if you had an extended hospital stay.

I'm the first to moan about the NHS, but I'm pleased it's there & to know that I'm not going to be left bankrupt by an illness & health bills.

I'm also pleased that my severely autistic son is going to be in receipt of UK adult social care. It's not great, but it's a lit better than anything the States offers (unless you have $$$ yourself of course)

So no thanks. I quite like my meat etc antibiotic free as much as possible as well. I don't want to eat meat/drink milk from animals given antib's every day.

And I don't want all my recipes to include a tin of Campbell's soup.

Medicare isn't good at all. Who said it was?

And not everyone qualifies.

Well steff (& a few others) seem to think it's the bees knees....

UK for 53rd state!!! :P

I also have BUPA through work. Useful if I have dodgy eczema on my hands and want to see a consultant within a week or so. Or when dd needed a tonsillectomy and we wanted to make sure was during school holidays.

But when the shit hits the fan I wouldn't even think of fannying about with private medicine. So when ds2 needed a blood transfusion when he was a newborn. When ds1 couldn't breathe. Bth times they were treated straightaway within the NHS and then had prompt, timely, smooth running aftercare. No worry about payment or authorisation. No hanging around.

And with ds1 his asthma is controlled with regular appointments with lovely GPs. No concern about affordability of medicines or it being a preexisting medical condition.

Also had three pretty great births with midwives and I liked the aftercare of midwives visiting for first couple of weeks, not having to travel to doctors for the early weeks.

Incidentally, I rang GP yesterday for non urgent appointment. Was told could either ring today at 8am to be seen today or could come in on Saturday for prebooked appointment. This is standard within the GP practice we are registered with. Kids are always seen same day if emergency, or within 3 days as non emergency. And they're terribly apologetic if as an adult I have to wait more than 3 days for an appointment. I luffs my GPs! :)

Yabu.

My dh thinks that the uk is a historical concept and we are run by Europe now

As someone of both uk and us parentage im not going to jump on the us bashing bandwagon (grow UP!).

However, the two countries are sooo different culturally I am always shocked when people suggest this like they are soo big and sooo clever and sooo original. Why ?

would you need a bridge, there isn't one to Ireland, which one part is the uk

Because I decided with my sleep addled brain that was required.

Something to do with if it was one country it would need to be joined and a bridge seamed easier than picking it up and moving it as I didn't think it would fit, and I'm quite keen on the idea of a bridge.

I would do it for the Lucky Charms.

Erm, Ireland is not part of the UK (only Northern Ireland is). The Irish are quite adamant about that.

No, no way. I like both countries individually but wouldn't ever want to see them together, I love being in America when I am there and feel at home there but I live here (the UK) and belong here.

A big reminder of why the US is a no for me just arrived at my door - my prescription!
I have rheumatoid arthritis, diagnosed at 19, I've had it most of my adult life and certainly all of my working life. In the US this would seriously affect my ability to get health insurance coverage.
The drugs I take here and the management through the health system would just be too expensive over there to contemplate.
This is partially due to the fact that they are expensive drugs but also because the NHS is better at bargaining with drug companies they are significantly cheaper here than in the US. This particular drug costs £9k to the NHS in the US it's on average (no single cost as it varies as to where you get it) $18.5k which is approx. £11.19k. This is the drug costs alone for 1yr, add on top of it the monitoring costs (compulsory as it's dangerous stuff), the other drugs that support it and then the drs visits and suddenly that adds up to a whole lot of money.
It's an amazing drug that gave me my life back but I know through many online friends on an international RA forum that in the US many long term sufferers struggle to access it as it's just unaffordable through the system there. Many have to choose education or drugs - here I got both (not entirely free but affordable accessible) & I think the UK benefitted as I am a functioning, tax paying member of society who brings in outside investment (through my job) rather than being crippled by this goddamn awful disease.
The long term costs are also offset as I now look like I'm going to avoid too much joint replacement surgery (v expensive) as the drugs have controlled the lasting damage

eurochick - the poster said that 'one part' i.e. NI, was part of the UK, which it is, but we like to forget with our Team GB stuff.

Sorry, off topic.

ethelb, I wouldn't bash the US. I learned from living there that the foundations of the US are so different from the UK and that's why we are so different. I lived in a neighbourhood with a website where everything was discussed, jolly good thing. The decisions on what to do were largely based on what the Constitution said. That just doesn't happen in the UK because we don't have a Constitution in that way.
The belief in individual rights, and dislike of central government are also much more extreme.
In the US a "liberal" can mean someone who believes in individual freedom, including the right to carry a gun.
All these things are vital issues in the US, but hardly figure in our thinking!

I've never had insurance that didn't cover meds, Tee.

Americans are arrogant, you'll get no argument from me there, but I think (and I'll say this in the most polite way I can think of, because even though it's another poster's name I am Minnesota nice :o) there is a lot of arrogance about America too.

If we were all conservative, gun toting, slack jawed rednecks, how in the world would Obama have been elected (by electoral college and popular vote) twice?

Whoever said that the regions of the US are very different is right. There are people of all sorts and beliefs and "types" and cultures here. It varies tremendously by area. We are a huge place; my parents live a five hour drive away and we're in the same state.

Also abortion is technically legal across the whole of the US, while it is not (to the best of my knowledge) in the UK.

And I like Hershey's better than Cadbury. :o

You can't have Hugh Jackman, but we will trade you can have Shane warne and Liz Hurley.

The weather is awesome pp, spent the arvo in the pool. I did kill a spider though so the good ppl of the uk might reconsider if I really do live in the better country.

I remember a radio interview with a guy who got cancer and could not work during his treatment. He lost his job, they cancelled his insurance and he was in the hoch for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It did not sound like a particularly useful way of conducting a health service, after indirectly paying a fortune for healthcare when you need it it gets cancelled.

I lived on the UK, US and Australia (where I live now) + Norway (where I come from). US and UK are just sooo different (mind you, the US is so different across the states etc; - living in Louisiana and living in Massachusetts was a whole different world) and why? I quite like the hot dogs tbf, and I like the schooling.

I do think a 'House' style assessment might actually get me a diagnosis within a week rather than the 4 month(& counting) wait from MRI referral to consultant appt that I'm doing at the moment. But I'd probably not be eligible for insurance for back & joint problems as they've been around for years & would be pre existing so the assessment would bankrupt me.
As would the amount of time I've been off work due to said condition/pregnancy related