Moving to the US?

If you get a job insurance will be through your company. If self employed, you need to buy, but in saying that you pay NI in UK, so cost of insurance is pretty comparable to what you pay in NI contribution.
When I worked for Verizon back in the day I had great health insurance and had very little out of pocket payment. Right now as I am self employed I pay $1400 a month in insurance for me the wife and kid (all three allegedly work for me so its a tax write off), having just spent the last 7 weeks ill with Covid and all the treatment and medication I have had for that I'm probably looking at about $1,500 out of pocket for mine and the wife's treatments. While I accept that not paying an insurance premium directly with the NHS is a better way, I've had very few gripes with the American health services. Care is every bit as good as the NHS, not waiting for elective and non-emergency stuff is better and referrals take days not weeks.
 


When I worked for Verizon back in the day I had great health insurance and had very little out of pocket payment. Right now as I am self employed I pay $1400 a month in insurance for me the wife and kid (all three allegedly work for me so its a tax write off), having just spent the last 7 weeks ill with Covid and all the treatment and medication I have had for that I'm probably looking at about $1,500 out of pocket for mine and the wife's treatments. While I accept that not paying an insurance premium directly with the NHS is a better way, I've had very few gripes with the American health services. Care is every bit as good as the NHS, not waiting for elective and non-emergency stuff is better and referrals take days not weeks.
Similar to what I pay, for a family of 4. Being self-employed it is a tax write off.
The bar isn't set very hard for supporting yourself. It's based on the poverty line.

You're (mostly) wrong mate. How much is medical insurance for the average family?
Good luck getting a visa with an income just above the poverty line. Not sure where you are getting your information from. In the real world income would need to be far in excess of poverty line.
 
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When I worked for Verizon back in the day I had great health insurance and had very little out of pocket payment. Right now as I am self employed I pay $1400 a month in insurance for me the wife and kid (all three allegedly work for me so its a tax write off), having just spent the last 7 weeks ill with Covid and all the treatment and medication I have had for that I'm probably looking at about $1,500 out of pocket for mine and the wife's treatments. While I accept that not paying an insurance premium directly with the NHS is a better way, I've had very few gripes with the American health services. Care is every bit as good as the NHS, not waiting for elective and non-emergency stuff is better and referrals take days not weeks.

true that. If you have a career and work hard it’s better there on nearly every level. They really don’t give a shit about people in Sunderland with “but guns, but nhs” patter.
 
Am I right in thinking the criticism of US healthcare is based on how is isn't accessible to everyone particularly the poor, as oppose to the actual quality of healthcare?

Because I've always felt if you had the money US healthcare is as good as anywhere in the world, but the problem is 30 million people don't have access to it.

Its just when I hear people say "US healthcare is shit" I wonder what do they mean by that?


Would that be a L1 or an H1B visa? Of course being Irish you'd have access to the green card lottery, but I think your chances are 1% or something so you could be waiting a lifetime.
Completely - the quality of healthcare here in the US is equal to anything in the UK. The difference between the two is that because the US model is a 'for-profit' service is the important factor for them, so ensuring swift service is paramount. As an example I had a referral for an knee complaint go from initial doctor appointment to referral appointment to surgery in just 10 days here for an issue I that took me 10 weeks just for my specialist to agree surgery was needed, but wasn't in the UK long enough to get the actual surgery date.
 
Good luck getting a visa with an income just above the poverty line. Not sure where you are getting your information from. In the real world income would need to be far in excess of poverty line.

It would be a formality, but I'm not that daft.
Similar to what I pay, for a family of 4. Being self-employed it is a tax write off.

I have a family of five and pay nowhere near $1400 per month in NI payments.

A couple earning £100k pa would pay less than that combined.
 
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It would be a formality, but I'm not that daft.


I have a family of five and pay nowhere near $1400 per month in NI payments.
When taxes are taken into account at the end of the year all the health insurers for people on my payroll (me, wife and kid) are taken off. So effectively neither me nor Bollotti pay that either.
 
When taxes are taken into account at the end of the year all the health insurers for people on my payroll (me, wife and kid) are taken off. So effectively neither me nor Bollotti pay that either.

Self employed people can pay very little here too. It's almost always more expensive there, barring high earning singletons/couples.

Obviously these things balance out, but his statement was somewhat sweeping.
 
If you get a job insurance will be through your company. If self employed, you need to buy, but in saying that you pay NI in UK, so cost of insurance is pretty comparable to what you pay in NI contribution.
I have to disagree on that. It’s the most expensive healthcare per capita in the world
Completely - the quality of healthcare here in the US is equal to anything in the UK. The difference between the two is that because the US model is a 'for-profit' service is the important factor for them, so ensuring swift service is paramount. As an example I had a referral for an knee complaint go from initial doctor appointment to referral appointment to surgery in just 10 days here for an issue I that took me 10 weeks just for my specialist to agree surgery was needed, but wasn't in the UK long enough to get the actual surgery date.
Can’t argue with that. What about ‘pre existing conditions’ or long term illness?

That’s what screwed me
 
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I have to disagree on that. It’s the most expensive healthcare per capita in the world

Can’t argue with that. What about ‘pre existing conditions’ or long term illness?

That’s what screwed me

That's what I wad going to say. Sounds ok if you are in a good job unless you get fired or get seriously ill like I assume you did
 
And a remarkable amount don't. What's your average tradesman/factory worker/shop worker/health worker on?

I'm not disputing a lot of people are on decent money. My point was a lot of average Joe's struggle and with very little in the way of working rights, health provisions or state help struggle a lot more than they would here.

I'm surprised this is a debatable point tbh.
Earning 50-75k a year in areas like socal is fuck all when a 2 bed house in a decent area is over a million dollars.
 
I'm surprised the yanks bother with small houses. Everything just seems huge.
Had family in LA living on the border of redondo and hermosa beach. 2 bed house no garden and about a 15 minute walk to the beach. 5 miles inland directly east was Compton. They paid over a million dollars about 15 years ago. Fuck knows what it would cost now.
Quick look and average house price in California is $750,000. LA $800,000 and Compton $400,000 :eek::)
 
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