To think about emigrating to the USA? 🇺🇸

[Rainbow1234]

I have posted in living overseas but don’t get much of a response so thought I would look for some opinions here.

So my dh is originally from Texas but moved to London 15 years ago when he was 16. We have 2 dc aged 4 and 7 (both have dual nationality). He assured me when we got married that he wasn’t bothered about ever moving back to the US and that he preferred England. Now he has been offered a really good job in California where his family live and wants me to think about us all moving out there but I’m so unsure, the job pays almost double what he is earning here but the area we would need to live in is more expensive than where we are now so financially we would be about the same. I was born and brought up in London, my mum dad and sister all live within 30 minutes of me and they are the only family I have in the whole world and I would feel so guilty about leaving them especially my mum, she’s 70 this year and in very good health (works full time) but I know she won’t be around forever but I can’t help thinking life could be better for my kids out there, anyone?

Cavender that description of Us education is exactly why I think the US is far down the list of international league tables. Too much academic focus, too much pressure, too much too young

San Francisco. Mandatory sick leave. 1 hour for every 30 hours worked. Mandatory paid maternal and paternal leave. Mandatory health coverage, health reimbursement of no insurance plan offered.

I get 4 weeks leave and 10 holidays. High salaries are typical. Minimum wage is $15 I believe, but that won't allow you to survive here. Rent for a 2 bedroom apartment is around $3500. To buy you won't get anything under 1m. That would be a small fixer upper. Property tax is 1.18#.

Ask me anything. Been here 37 years and miss my family terribly but still here.

This is what I mean...

Abso I would have agreed with you previously but actually my kids have come on in leaps and bounds and once they got used to it, really enjoyed it.

Part of that is no doubt because they aren’t worrying about universities here because we’ll eventually be returning to the U.K. but actually the school are very nurturing. You can contact the teachers directly and they are happy to provide additional support when required.

Sharing my experience in case it helps. We just moved, very glad to be out of London. We're in the Midwest though and a lot better off financially, set to buy a house, renting a 2 bed. We couldn't have done that in London. Our lifestyle is much more outdoorsy now too, which I love.

Job wise, I have much better total annual leave. 15 days vacation, but a total of 42 days when you add all the holidays. Health insurance is $240/month for a family plan (albeit minimum coverage as no kids + very healthy). Pre-tax, so less bad than it sounds.

Downsides- poor quality of education. I hate seeing open carry/knowing there's people with concealed carry. Trump supporters, evangelicals, and militant Catholics/Baptists (maybe just a Midwest thing?). No public transport and poor infrastructure for walking. Vegetables are expensive. Very poor maternity leave- think I get 6 weeks full day with disability cover, then the rest of the FMLA period with no pay.

People are comparing the U.K. and the USA, which isn’t accurate. The US has the size and diversity of Europe. Ever state is different with their own laws, culture, politics etc.

The US is an amazingly diverse place with so much to see and do. Moving here was the best decision for my family. Last year I became a US citizen and renounced my UK citizenship as there was no point in keeping it.

I would not live in the UK due to NHS wait times and overworked doctors, Asian pedophile gangs, poisoning by Russian spies, lack of preparedness for severe weather, culture of heavy drinking, potential negative effects of Brexit and Jeremy Kyle .... anyone else want to judge a country on its headlines?

Unless you've lived in the USA, you can't possibly know what it's like.

The comments on here regarding healthcare has got me wondering what your average joe would do if he got cancer. Someone with an average income, minimal savings, and a 25 year mortgage (which is pretty much the situation for me and most of my friends in the U.K.) - is the private healthcare in the US so bad that someone in this situation wouldn’t be able to afford treatment for cancer? I can’t understand why, if you have insurance, that you’d end up bankrupt if you had a serious illness. I understand that healthcare packages vary, but if you had decent insurance via your employer then why wouldn’t this cover cancer treatment? I think I would be living in a permanent state of fear that the big C would get me and I’d have to sell everything I own just to stay alive.

I would go for it, but I don't have kids which I think is quite different. I haven't lived in the US but have left the UK and lived abroad for over ten years. I loved the UK before I left but an opportunity came up. I do think that living overseas really does enhance your life and broaden your horizons massively in so many ways. You meet so many different people and have such a vast array of experiences (good and bad). We miss family but when we do go back or they visit - you make the most of it. It can also give so much to family too - as they will travel to see you and to places they would have never seen before either.

The first year was hard in some ways but after that it was fine.

@BradleyPooper

That's a specious point really as you could say it for absolutely anywhere/anything.

Not a doctor? Then you can't possibly understand medicine. Not a politician? You can't possibly have a valid opinion on politics then. Not lived in a country? Then you can't possibly know anything about what it's like to live there.

No, not really. Of course living somewhere gives deeper insight to a place than not, but if you think it probably wouldn't be for you based on readily available facts about the place, you'd probably be right.

Presidentpoopants

We are in a similar financial position as you describe. If one of us were to get cancer it would cost us $1500, plus probably another $500-$2000 in additional drug costs. So no it wouldn’t bankrupt us.

People who go bankrupt either don’t have insurance, or choose a hospital/treatment option not covered by their insurance.

Unless you've lived in the USA, you can't possibly know what it's like

Of course you can. Or I could say, oh you live in California, you can't possibly know where anywhere in the rest of America is like. Or even in the rest of California. Or even in another town other than your own. After all, if you don't live there, you don't know anything about it, right?

If one of us were to get cancer it would cost us $1500, plus probably another $500-$2000 in additional drug costs

Is that a one off? No cap on long term treatments?

MANY CANCER PATIENTS MUST FACE BANKRUPTCY—OR DIE
www.newsweek.com/many-cancer-patients-must-face-bankrupty-or-die-489596

For working-age cancer survivors, debt and bankruptcy are common
www.reuters.com/article/us-health-cancer-financing/for-working-age-cancer-survivors-debt-and-bankruptcy-are-common-idUSKBN0UJ24F20160105

Having said that, it's reportedly because many americans don't seem to have savings and struggle to pay an extra $1000 for example.

The comments on here regarding healthcare has got me wondering what your average joe would do if he got cancer. Someone with an average income, minimal savings, and a 25 year mortgage (which is pretty much the situation for me and most of my friends in the U.K.) - is the private healthcare in the US so bad that someone in this situation wouldn’t be able to afford treatment for cancer?

You would get treatment. My dogwalker is selfemployed her wife is a teacher. She has had a heart valve replaced last year, no waiting, 2 weeks in hospital, pacemaker put in, regular check ups. Her wife has a chronic lung condition, she sees an expert in it regularly and is on the transplant list just in case. Their teenage daughter spent a week as an in patient recently for mh issues and continues to see a therapist. The health care provision isn't perfect but it isn't non existent. There is insurance, medicare, medicaid, emergency cover.

In the OP's position, I wouldn't move. Having done it, I wouldn't leave family if I could avoid it. I would also worry that if she decided she wanted to move back but her husband didn't, she would be stuck.

There are lots of bad things about the US (and some wonderful things) but as others have said, the US is different depending on where you are and there is a lot of judgement by headlines on this thread.

The main problem is if for any reason you find yourself without a job.

I suppose most of my information comes from Walter White having to make meth to pay for his treatment! I would hope that breaking bad isn’t a true representation of what it’s like to live in the US!

"Funny, it's only the people who have never lived in the USA who are saying they wouldn't do it. "

Not funny at all. They don't want to live in the US, so they have not. It sounds perfectly normal.

No wait heart valve replacement? She must have had decent insurance then!

GMO food, nope.

My Dad and Stepmum have spent the last 4 years living in Davis, just outside Sacramento and about 70 miles from SF.

It’s a university town and it’s a very white middle class bubble. It’s picturesque. No one is over weight and it has the highest number of bicycles per capita in the US.

My Dad loves it there (prob something to do with the fact that he works PT from home and there is a golf course literally on his door step.

My Stepmum on the other hand isn’t so keen, she’s counting the days until they move back to the U.K. this Summer.

I liked going there for a holiday but I don’t think I could live there. The food prices are just through the roof! ($8 for a bottle of salad dressing!) The TV and Internet are shit (first world problems!) and there’s just something about it in general I can’t put my finger on.

As PPs have said SanFran is really REALLY expensive! In terms of housing I think it overtook NYC as the most expensive place in the US! And as it’s on the water, it’s cold!

You wouldn’t have to live actually in SF, half an hour out would make all the difference in terms of rents and climate, but be warned the traffic is horrendous!

What would worry me the most would be claiming on my health insurance and then being refused, at a later date for example my husband has private health care we live in the UK and I have used it a few times for a long time back issue.

Anyway a couple of years later I wanted to have some more treatmentand the health insurance company refused to cover my back so now I have to fork out for a private osteopath for wait for the NHS should I need it I don't think private health care is all that it's cracked up to be. Insurance companies will and do anything to get out of paying

No wait heart valve replacement? She must have had decent insurance then!

This really sums up people's inaccurate perceptions of US health insurance.

It is completely normal for insurance to cover something like heart valve replacement. All health insurance policies are required to cover this kind of thing. They can't be sold otherwise.

Health insurance in the US is very different to health insurance in the UK. It's very very heavily regulated.

Not in a million years would I move to US with children. Gun culture, health provision , DT on immigration...just NO!

Is that a one off? No cap on long term treatments?

It's what you'd pay per year. It's your annual deductible (excess).

No, there are no longer any caps on long term treatments. Pre-ACA insurance companies could sell policies with say a $1m lifetime limit. The ACA made this (and many other things like not covering pre-existing conditions and charging sick people more) illegal.

This is partly why health insurance is so expensive in the US.

Lweji

That’s our annual cap per person.