To wonder why anyone would want to live in America?

[allergon842]

I follow a woman on Instagram who moved from England to the States and someone commented "America is only great if you're white, rich, and healthy".

Putting aside Trump/politics, I've always found it weird why anyone would want/would have wanted to live there. I understand if you're from a developing country, but I don't see the appeal for anyone who comes from Europe. The lower taxes and opportunities are enticing, but if you can't make it, you can fall very easy with the lack of a safety net. It seems to be only decent if you're a top earner ($100,000+).

Ooooh, and I bet you get all this gold star 'same day appointments with the GP,' and also 'the specialist on the same day' all for free in America!

Oh wait!

Seriously, trying to bash our NHS by saying waiting 4 days to see a specialist, and a whole 2 WEEKS for treatment (as if it's a long time!) is alien to you as your 'standards have changed' is laughable.

Edited, as I was a bit snarky. Just so sick of our NHS being lambasted! I do genuinely hope you never get to a point where you can't afford the healthcare in America though. At least in the UK you know it's free at the first point of use.

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You jave health insurance though
Dont get me wrong the NHS has many flaws but its free at the point of contact and will always treat somone and people can also have private health insurance

I'd like to know where you are. I'm in Virginia - very close to DC and near multiple amazing healthcare options but the wait for neurologists and cardiologists is still months long.

My DD as a minor, got a pediatric cardiology appointment within a week. But DH had to wait five months.

The neurology appointment was three months.

And this is with excellent insurance cover.

I don't understand the waiting times as we are paying and there is clearly a need - you'd think they'd start bringing more doctors in to meet the need.

I agree US GP appointments are very different from the UK - you get in the same day or next, and there's no time limit, you have time and space to ask as many questions as you want to and bring up as many different issues as you need to.

Nof even poor as i said my son has type1 diabetes the NHS is far from perfect but he will never not be able to afford insulin unlike many people in the USA .

I wonder this too. I don't think I know anywhere in the world where you would get a GP appointment the same day, then referred to a specialist on that same day, and then see that specialist, on that same day.

All on the same day!

Even people who are rich/can afford A-star healthcare plans probably wouldn't get all this at such speed.

That poster said it's only if SHE isn't free that it's any longer. Surely all these specialists can't have so much free time that they have free appointments that afternoon, every day!

Baffled!

Cancer is life threatening…

Pretty much what I was on about. If you develop a long term health condition (in America) some insurances don't cover it, or will only cover for so long, or the price of the insurance will go up so much that it's unaffordable. It's like pet insurance. Lots of things that are going to cost them a lot of money isn't covered, or it is but only for say, one year, OR the price of your insurance goes up to an amount 10 times higher!

I knew a woman in America a few years ago who had a kidney problem and the insurance paid for a certain procedure she needed, but it wouldn't cover the kidney dialysis treatment. She and her husband had to sell their house to pay the medical bill. (Even though they had been insured!)

Absolutley the treatment of diabetes has come on so much over the past 20 years my son is prescribed fast acting and also slow realease insulin to be taken at different times
From what im told insurance wont cover this for many Americans and they are advisred to get insulin over the counter at Walmart
It works but its an older type of insulin so takes longer and not ideal

I live in New York (Manhattan) and always get a same-day GP appointment, I never haven’t. If you don’t believe me, look up a Manhattan zip code on Zocdoc and search for primary care doctors - ample availability on any given day. I’m not “super rich”, not at all, just about average for Manhattan. I’m on the same type of health insurance as everyone in my social circle (young professionals). Specialist appointments are almost always the same day too (do the same search but for a specialist).

Totally agree with OP, it’s just not the speed with which you’re able to access care, it’s that you have plenty of time with the clinician. Appointments aren’t rushed. There’s plenty of time for questions and discussing your results and their recommendations. You don’t feel like you’re on a conveyor belt and wasting the clinician’s time with any questions.

I lived there for 3 years in my 20s, yeah everything looks rosy and shiny but it is so fake. I missed the simple things like walking & the British humour ( there isn't any) . Really true friends and sincere people (very fickle out for what they can get especially service staff) . Obviously the food is awful, along with healthcare and huge gun crime. Been back many times in my later years but each time I'm more jaded about it ...just don't see the appeal

I don’t get the comments about food? Yes, unhealthy food is available, but that’s the case in every country. Surely if you want to eat healthily, you just don’t but unhealthy food? No one is forced to buy pizza and burgers and whatnot. I love to eat heavily and to cook from scratch - I eat the same variety of fresh, whole foods as I did in the UK. Why wouldn’t I?

The only notable difference is that I drink more here because I socialise a lot more, as people are generally more outgoing and have more disposable income to go out and do stuff. But that’s a choice and I could (should) rein in the drinking.

american here, living in the uk, and my biggest fear is getting seriously ill in the uk. Yes, healthcare in the us is much more expensive, but when you need it, it is there - unlike the uk. Personally I would rather be broke than dead.

i also think education options are much better in the us than uk - it will be more variable within the us, but the approach is much more aligned to real world skills.

Agree. Live in the southwest of England and eating out options are dire - toasties, jacket potatoes, fish and chips, greasy Chinese. Let’s not mention roast dinners or full English breakfast- enjoyable but hardly healthy.

It's not just about availability though, it's about the structural and societal approach to eating. Ubiquitous fast food options but also diet culture, over consumption is reflected in the obesity rates at 42% making it 18th ranking in the world!

There’s no council tax but there are property taxes, that homeowners pay, or renters contribute to via the rent.

States where property tax is cheap such as Florida pay similar levels to the UK, but expensive states such as NJ cost a lot more. Some US friends resettled in NJ and were shocked at the amount they had to pay.

That's pretty reductive. People aren't criticising the US because it's 'fashionable,' it's probably because the last short period of time has seen the country shift gears to an exceptionally worrying place. I have a lot of family in the US, and the majority of my work in the last 15 years has been US-based. Yes, lots of people are fine. That doesn't mean that American democracy is safe. People take it for granted, but democracy is really a pretty recent invention, and the US does not have a God-given right to it. If democracy isn't safe in the US, then the world suffers.

There are SO many parts to this, but if nothing else, Roe and Wade? The issues unfolding in America right now are seismic.

Fashionable, my eye.

I'm also in the South-West, but our local eating out options include British, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Turkish, Indian, Nepali, Thai, Chinese and Caribbean. We're pretty lucky.

The food stuff does vary a lot, in CA the food is overall pretty great because so much produce is grown here, we have a vast variety of shops and farmers markets and stores specializing in international foods. I find the selection in the UK quite disappointing in comparison and also find a lot of the food heavy in comparison to what I eat here. That is not the case in a lot of the U.S. and is a huge issue, fast food and junk is cheap and readily available.

What really strikes me about the US is how normalised dependency on medication is. There are absolutely huge issues with illegal drugs but the opioid crisis and the 'pill popping' among everyday citizens (not just celebrities etc) is really shocking to me. Obviously not everyone but lots of the US citizens and those living there who I know and this is also widely depicted in the media, TV shows etc. An upper, a downer, a sleep 'aid', an emergency stash of something etc etc it goes on and on and it is the norm. Not to say everyone but nobody bats an eyelid.. procured illegally would be bad in one way but the other way is that this is overprescribing by doctors and insurance companies who are in the pockets of pharma and do not have their patients' best interests at heart. This scares me for the population who trust what their MD tells them, and/or sees that this is normal and what they should do. Many people do need many different types of medication and maybe several at once but this is beyond the scope of that.

I love the geography of the US, have had many lovely long term stays etc and lots of links including family, met so many lovely people, huge diversity which I adore (of course this has been and has become a huge, divisive, dangerous issue in some ways for SOME but I still admire it) but the way US society at large is and is heading... is at odds with what I think is right.

The debt problem is also another jarring cultural issue.. it's just so normalised to be in huge debt for absolutely everything. Again, not everyone, but many and with absolutely devastating consequences for individuals, families and communities.

It's not somewhere I'd ever chose to live, even forgetting gun violence, abortion laws, bigoted swathes of society (not unique to the US by any means) etc which are not small things. Not to be melodramatic, but geopolitically the US has had its day and is now in decline (as are we here in the UK, no doubt) but this is going to be a painful realisation for their govt and then in turn their citizens.

Short version: I wouldn't want to, either.

I grew up in NYC and lived there until we moved to London about 15 years ago, and I'd say that the two countries are roughly similar in that people with means eat well, and people without, struggle to do so.

I am an american and Inwould say it is a HUGE country and lifestyles/issues vary wildly. There are parts i wouldn’t dream of living and and parts with natural beauty and progressive politics.

But many Amerians cant afford it thats the irony of your point.

And health care maybe there for you but its not there for millions of people living without insurance
Personally as the mother of a type 1 Diabetic i would rather live in a country where i know we will never have to worry about him affording insulin

We loved the outdoor lifestyle, big house with a pool. People were really friendly. Bigger roads and better infrastructure. In the South most finish work at 4pm so we would enjoy BBQs, sports, pool etc where the kids could just run and have fun, not like timed organised fun in the UK eg after school club til 4 then ferry them to class for 5-6. Most USA downers say they wouldn’t live there because of the guns but I don’t think these people have lived anywhere outside of the UK. In the grand scheme of it, its a pretty nice life

While I think there are things that can feel enticing, you couldn't pay me to raise children there.