Re: Going home!!!
 

Gabgoeshome that is a fair statement - I am grateful to have the opportunity to live in England, my family left England for the US back in the early 1700's. My Italian side left Italy in the the 1950's. The UK is a wonderful place, the quality of life far exceeds what I imagined, this is a factual statement.

I made a very comfortable living in the US and made very good money. However you "live to work" your whole life and if you falter slightly with your retirement you are done for!

Here in the UK you will NEVER lose your home to medical expenses, you never have to worry about "I need to see the doctor so I might not be able to buy food this month", that is the reality of the US to the UK! So tell me that gets your dander up and not a factual statement!

Re: Going home!!!
 

Yes, I agree.

The average American lives *much* more hand to mouth than any Brits at the same economic level.

We are leaving too, this country is not what it once was...

I wonder when (if ever) it will recover?

I am glad you are so happy in the UK ...

Re: Going home!!!
 

Thank you ;)

Honestly, I do not think it would be possible for the US to recover at this point. It will have to default and restructure over a period of 50-100 years. Nearing 15 trillion and 1.5 trillion deficit is staggering, besides that is what they are admitting to, I wonder how much more it actual is.

Unfortunately a lot of the world economy is based on the US economy and it will drag the world down with it to some degree. Greece in is shambles because of the corruption of Goldman Sachs, that sure is not mentioned in mainstream media.

I hope the UK stays the UK and does not follow the footsteps of the US, that would be very unfortunate. However, I don't see that happening. :sunglasses:

Re: Going home!!!
 

Quote: "Healthcare is totally top notch and no long waits, not waiting for tests, no waiting for treatment, no waiting for surgery, that is all American propaganda!"

- it wouldn't take long to find data collected by the NHS itself showing that these "facts" are way off the mark.

Like I said, anecdote isn't conclusive, but please don't trivialise my own 18-month wait for surgery as simply "perception".

I think you are confusing perception with factual accuracy. Except the American propaganda bit, of course.

Re: Going home!!!
 

Bottonline - I will take my chances with NHS any day over US healthcare! :p

Re: Going home!!!
 

Good luck - I hope you don't have reason to change your tune if you or a family member end up in the same situation I did. Maybe then you won't be using smiley faces.

Re: Going home!!!
 

My Mother in law was refused treatment in the US because her insurance would not cover her. She has had excellent treatment here which saved her life.
My brother in law died in the US because they refused to treat him since he had no insurance, that would have never happened here. I could go on but I think you get my point!

Re: Going home!!!
 

Yes, I get your point - and you'll note I haven't injected any humorous smiley faces, because people's own bad healthcare experiences aren't cause for humour.

I hope you get my point.

Re: Going home!!!
 

:confused:

how on earth did this just happen?

Re: Going home!!!
 

i have just recently returned to the UK after living in two other countries. My opinion is that the UK is like anywhere else, it has its pros and cons. However, I would not underestimate the stupidity in the UK. The NHS, while they are laying off front line nurses (about 56,000), have a massive (and expensive) advertising campaign going on telling people that if they have a cough that lasts for more than 3 weeks, they may have cancer, but then again they may not. Give me a break.

Re: Going home!!!
 

Someone took a wrong turn and thought they were in this thread:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ght=healthcare

Re: Going home!!!
 

:)

Re: Going home!!!
 

Usually I get in this in this discussion with my patriotic American friends, not with someone from the UK. I think dunroving is an American patriotic corporate worker in disguise. I would put a smiley face here, however.......

The average family of 4 with decent healthcare coverage in the US costs between $1800-$2500 per MONTH!

I am not going to make any more comments on the subject past this post.

I will end it by saying: When I worked at an insurance company in the US, I won't mention the name, however they claim to have the strength of the rock of Gibraltar.

I had a client come in one day wanting to buy health insurance. I will try to make this short. She was being treated for cancer and her chemo and radiation treatment was very hard on her. she wanted to quit her job in order to recover and continue her treatment.

If she quit her job she would lose her healthcare insurance, if she continued working she would die of exhaustion and stress. She could get the supplemental insurance called COBRA for in between jobs, however, it would have costed her $2100 a month and would only last 18 months after that she could never get insurance again because of the pre-existing condition, how do you afford $2100 a month without a job?

I felt so bad for her, I did not have the heart to tell her right a way that she could not get coverage with a pre existing condition, so I walked out of my office for a moment and my manager said to me what was going on. I told him the situation and he said "tell her you can't help her and she has to leave, time is money go onto the next".

I went back to my office told her how sorry I was that I could not help her, after she left I wrote my resignation to the company and left. This is America! This is American corporatism!

How would you like to end up in the hospital and have surgery and go home to find bills coming in telling you that your insurance did not cover that, think I am kidding? Think again! Think surgery isn't expensive? Open heart surgery in the US $350,000. Cesarean birth $$35,000+, appendicitis $20,000+ Liver transplant $500,000+ try to pay off those bills. You will lose everything to bankruptcy I guarantee it! Now go ahead and Bash NHS.

Re: Going home!!!
 

Very interesting posts. I don't know why Dunroving is bashing the NHS so much. It's not perfect but at least it's there - unlike the US where 60% of all bankruptcies are medical related. Dunroving - I know many people here may look back at the UK with rose colored glasses - but it appears to me that you are looking back at the US with the same rose colored glasses.

Re: Going home!!!
 

Err, where exactly did I say anything about the USA in this thread?

If you read the whole thread carefully from Giovanni's first post you will see I am not bashing the NHS, simply correcting a factually incorrect statement he made. The conversation got taken astray and turned into a US vs. UK healthcare comparison.

I didn't at any point say the US system is better than the UK system or that the UK system is rubbish.

To reiterate, saying there is no waiting for treatment on the NHS is just utter tosh. I had surgery yesterday, after an 18-month wait, and am also still waiting to see a specialist for a painful ortho problem, again almost 12 months after the GP referred me. It doesn't take long to find empirical evidence of the problem with waiting lists in the NHS. Recognising this basic fact shouldn't result in accusations about bashing the UK and only goes to show my point about rose-tinted glasses.

The problem is, any objective observation that doesn't consist of "the UK is perfect" seems to start a sh*tstorm pretty quickly.

It's a bit like the "U-S-A, Number 1" bullcrap.

Do a search for "NHS" in posts I have made and you will see I have made plenty of positive posts. I just also tend to call bullsh*t when I see it.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...HS#post9458135

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...HS#post9432985

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...HS#post9337748

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...HS#post9336292