Reasons you wouldn’t move to US

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Dh has been offered a job in the US. The increase in salary would put us into a completely different wealth bracket but I really don’t want to move.

• fear of home invasion with guns
• school shooting - guns in general I guess
• American exceptionalism attitude annoys me
• Being away from family
• Not having Europe on doorstep

Can I ask if you have any other reasons

I find these observations interesting.because based on what I read on mumsnet income inequality is a huge issue in the UK with people struggling to heat their home and keep a roof over their head while Central London is full of billionaires. The perception that there are no employment protections or social safety nets in the U.S. are also off base, it is illegal to refuse to treat someone in the ER if they are uninsured and many states have programs that insure children foe free/super low cost if the parents don’t have access to healthcare. Many states also have extensive HMOs which act a lot like the NHS, the premiums are low but you have to go to their specific network of Drs and hospitals and get referrals etc. and ends up being easier for people to navigate than the regular systems. I think everyone gets their news about the U.S. from the Daily Mail website based on what I have read today. And the offensive part is that people are in their moral high horse acting like they are bette people for living in rhe UK and implying my that anyone living in the U.S. is lacking morals because if certain issues. That is Xenophobic and just unnecessary, you are not a better person because of where you live!

Connecticut or NY State would be better than a lot of places in the States. Very cold winters, but Fall is beautiful. The main drawback I had to living in the US is that not many suburban towns are geared to walking. They tend to drive to the store, rather than just walk out to the corner shop. I find the lack of street life quite boring and isolating - unless of course, you’re in the middle of NYC or Boston or similar. One place we did live once was Hoboken, which is in NJ but very close to Manhattan and I liked it brcsuse it felt similar-ish to a London suburb because people walked and there were loads if families about and cafes / street life and it was very friendly and easy to meet people.

However, looks like Trump is going to return, so that would be a hard no from me. The place will be ridiculous. Boris Johnson was bad enough, but can you imagine? The US will become a laughing stock. Nobody will take it seriously and its a real shame.

It really depends where you’re going to live though. At least there’s lots of great unis in the area you’re looking at. Everywhere has its pros and cons. Yes, life is stressful enough without having to think about guns. But, if you were in a good community in one of those states, with a high street etc that people actually walk to, you would probably find thst most people are super-friendly and decent, more ‘wholesome’, positive and community-spirited than your average community in the U.K., where people are more cynical about life in general.

The fact that the healthcare system in a America is an utter shit show is well documented. Americans as a society pay a fortune for really poor health

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletter-article/us-ranks-last-among-seven-countries-health-system-performance#:~:text=Despite%20having%20the%20most%20expensive,ability%20to%20lead%20long%2C%20healthy%2C

Why are some American posters so defensive? You are not above criticism. The way your country on the whole deals with guns, healthcare and university fees is ridiculous.

I don’t think if this thread was ‘Reasons you wouldn’t move to the UK’ you would have Brits swarming around calling posters xenophobic for entirely valid criticism.

You can absolutely get delicious meat in the US. Pricey as anything, but it's surely there. I did love the farmers markets in NJ, Midwest a bit less so. I donkove the Midwest although I wouldn't move back permanently.

I think the difference with Brits is that we don't grow up swearing allegiance to the flag at school and being taught that our country is the greatest in history, and we are more likely to visit other countries on holiday so we have a better idea about what else exists beyond our own borders.

With the kind of pro US propaganda they grow up with it must come as quite a shock to find that people living in other countries don't have the same impression of the US as being the greatest country in the world.

if there was a British thread that was like should I not move to the UK and had misinformation and just irrelevant posts that had nothing to do with the specific area “wick Tesco has a lack of fresh veg options, therefore you shouldn’t move to London” I feel there would be a fair amount of brits on the thread correcting that.

There are daily threads here bashing America and Americans. It only tells how jealous they are of the US. What is so threatening for British people about the US?
I bet Americans do not even bother to think twice about the British and their little Britain culture and their miserable weather. 😂

I am moving there soon. People fume when I tell them and they hate that I am very happy about moving so the amoral bit is for them to deal with.

To my knowledge, there's no free healthcare. They charge a fortune just for blinking near you!

Trump/Biden although we have our own versions of those 2 here in the UK!

Various guns/violence.

I've never had a passport/never been abroad.

Lack of animal rights.

Lack of women's right.

However, I have absolutely nothing against America, it's a beautiful country with amazingly law-abiding decent hard working people. It's just some people that ruin it for everyone else!

However, if did move there it would be to Wyoming - bloody hell it looks gorgeous!

There is some free healthcare, especially for children and especially in some states.
It covers very little (for children, you have very little choice of doctors and they are hard to get to and hard to get an appointment - so you might not get a GP within an hour's bus ride or an appointment for a routine issue within a month, for adults you'd again have a very limited choice of GPs and appointments, and a hefty co-pay).

(so, for adults, it isn't free at all!)

83 million adults and children get free healthcare in the US under Medicaid and CHIPS, the children's program.

CMS Releases Latest Enrollment Figures for Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

Every large medical group practice in my area (suburban NYC) provides care under these programs, so it's easy to find a doctor locally. I suspect the waiting times are much lower than you Brits have with the NHS.

These are the "hefty" copays you mentioned.

New York Medicaid

Copayments
The following services are subject to a copayment in New York:
Clinic Visits
$3.00
Medical Supplies
$1.00 per claim
Inpatient hospital stays
$25.00
Emergency room for non-emergencies
$3.00
Pharmacy (brand name preferred)
$1.00
Pharmacy (brand name non-preferred)
$3.00
Pharmacy (generic)
$1.00
Non-prescription drugs (over the counter)
$0.50
The following are exempt from all New York Medicaid copayments:

• Private practicing physician services
• Laboratory and X-ray services
• Home health services
• Long term home health care services
• Family planning services
• Children under 21
• Pregnant women
• Residents of a licensed nursing home
• Residents of a licensed mental health facility.
• Enrollees in a Comprehensive Medical Case Management (CMCM) or Services Coordination Program.
• Enrollees in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) waiver programs
• Psychotropic and tuberculosis drugs.
• Members with incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level
• Members in hospice
• Most American Indians and Alaska Natives

Copay Maximum You are responsible to pay a maximum of up to $200 in a copay year. Your year begins on April 1st and ends on March 31st each year. If you reach your maximum of $200, a letter will be sent to you exempting you from paying Medicaid copayments until April 1st.

I hope this helps.

The Medicaid programme is not fully standardised. I work in public health so I have fairly detailed knowledge here. The government establishes minimum standards for both Medicaid and CHIP. Some states are much more generous than that minimum. For example, when we lived in Pennsylvania, ALL children were eligible for CHIP or Medicaid depending on income. (Medicaid covers some services that are not available on CHIP; they tend to affect disabled people the most.) As you made more money, you paid a larger premium. In other states, it is simply not available above a specified income level (200-300% of FPL for family size)

Availability of doctors varies because states set their own payment levels for Medicaid and CHIP. In addition many states require certain categories of Medicaid enrollees to receive their care via a Medicaid managed care organization and you must use that plan's network. So it's very difficult to make a generalisation about accessibility of care. Almost all hospitals participate in Medicaid and Medicare (though again MCOs can restrict which hospitals you use). CMS links Medicaid and Medicare participation, so it's very difficult to opt out of it: almost no hospitals can afford to be non-participating providers with Medicare. individual doctors are another story. As practices get bought up and become part of integrated health systems, Medicaid access may increase. On the flip side, in areas or fields where doctors are opting out of insurance participation altogether (child psychiatry is a known issue), Medicaid access becomes even tighter.

In general the system has been successful in getting children insured, especially in states that take it seriously. The ACA did close significant gaps for adults, but there are greater issues there. The disabled face the greatest issues, some of which are the tying of insurance to employment, but it's much deeper than that (to some extent this mirrors the social care problem in the UK; some of the problems fall under healthcare here.)

I can actually think of a fair few reasons not to move to the USA. Some of them are about moving abroad in general. It's hard! But some people on MN will complain about women's rights in the USA but be blithe about taking a job in the Persian Gulf.

The issue is when people get the reasons wrong, like "the food is all terrible" or "you won't get any holiday" or "you're going to get shot". I have to drive through some of the less salubrious parts of Baltimore regularly (think: Where The Wire was set) and I've still not seen gunfire, though I have seen drug dealing.

(Also don't assume Trump will win the election, especially if the Democrats get their heads out of their arses. The system is too complicated to make that assumption and there's 3.5 months left. The polls were all saying Hillary would win in 2016, too!)

80% of households in the UK aren't struggling to heat their houses. You're not going to get a representative sample from Mumsnet threads. People don't post to say "we're doing just fine, thanks". If you used Mumsnet threads to gauge the health of relationships, you'd think that every man was a lazy, abusive gaslighter with an overbearing mother; whereas in reality most relationships are healthy.

In the UK, complaining is an accepted national pastime. In some other countries (including the US), complaining is considered "unpatriotic" by some and is often met with "if you don't like it then leave".

Why is the default retort to legitimate criticism in almost any Mumsnet thread (pick your subject - Range Rovers, astroturf, sex ponds hot tubs) "you're all just jealous"?

It's an idiotic argument.

It’s the mental gymnastics! All of a sudden gun crimes are not an issue and most people have decent access healthcare…yeah right

I see very little defensiveness from American replies. Exasperation at times yes, but defensiveness not so much.

Why do I read these threads? They amuse me
Why do I post in these threads? Sometimes it’s educate, sometimes it’s to piss-take (see my spray cheese comment), and sometimes it’s to provide a view that doesn’t get presented on tv and the internet.

Do I care if I change anyone’s mind? Not particularly.

Like I said earlier… if people don’t want to live in the US that’s no skin off of my nose. If you do, welcome!

Oh and for the vast majority of Americans gun crimes are not an issue and they have access to great healthcare.

The list is long, OP.

Healthcare
Guns
Politics
Culture of driving EVERYWHERE
Lack of culture
Tipping
Terrible food quality (dangerous chemicals are classed as 'ingredients')

I will try and think of something positive but may be a while.

Gun crimes are an issue in some areas and not others. And most people do have access to decent healthcare, 92.% in the last census.

Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2022

Highlights
More people were insured in 2022 than 2021. In 2022, 92.1 percent of people, or 304.0 million, had health insurance at some point during the year, representing an increase in the insured rate and number of insured from 2021 (91.7 percent or 300.9 million).

In 2022, private health insurance coverage continued to be more prevalent than public coverage, at 65.6 percent and 36.1 percent, respectively.

Of the subtypes of health insurance coverage, employment-based insurance was the most common, covering 54.5 percent of the population for some or all of the calendar year, followed by Medicaid (18.8 percent), Medicare (18.7 percent), direct-purchase coverage (9.9 percent), TRICARE (2.4 percent), and VA and CHAMPVA coverage (1.0 percent).

@MissConductUS Suburban NY isn't exactly representative of the population density of the US in general, now is it?

The picture shows that the lowest cost California has an annual out of pocket of $9100 for an adult, and a deductible of over $6000.

@MissConductUS Gun crime isn't a problem anywhere in the UK.