jadm51

year 1 - (I'm now 51 by the way, not an easy age for a male in the states)
met USA spouse on holiday, married moved to USA , got work 8 months later after long wait for permit.

year 2 - 7 (approaching 8 years 2008)
Moved to Florida from New England, heat so bad here got sick, found work, endured 3 hurricanes and lost 2 homes to them in 2 years. Pay much lower work wise than north.

year 4 we were robbed home-wise twice after sorting ourselves out losing everything to hurricaines.

Year 5 company downsized had to take a lower pay job which took near 1 year of looking and living off unemployment and barely eating and getting by. Rent was raised high enough we had to move once again.

year 6-7 wife became so ill needed hospitalization, was tossed out of more than 3 as we had no private health care and she ended up in a wheelchair we had to beg for as you cant get medical assistance here to speak of so we couldnt afford one on my wages.

Lost my job to another downsize, were homeless within 3 months in car as jobs were so scarce in south Florida. Applied for but got NO help as pay was so shoddy ( I am retail management trained, had some college also).

Here we are in year 8 now and desperatly wanting to go back to UK, we have finally managed to obtain me another management job but only earn enough to afford a 1 room flat, no health care through work, wife still ill and cant even get medical here, eating a good meal is a luxury and we live in a cheap rent area prevalent with drug use.

Life here in the states, at least where we live is nothing more than sham and no way anyone should have to live. Its all been downhill since arriving years ago. Save to fly back home for wife and our dog is a hardship but a necessary one because if we stay any longer I could lose my wife healthwise!

One thing I did have back home I have a hard time keeping here in the states - hope.

As a male and husband life here is very difficult to say the least, even with my schooling credentials, ect and saving enough to leave is now a huge hurdle. My British passport to renew here is in the hundreds as apposed to the UK and wifes spouse visa is over 1000.US, then the air fair here is NUTS and getting higher.
In the end we will have to pack a bag each and leave our belongings behind jus to get back to the uk money-wise if we are lucky!
id never move here again. :curse:

Oh by the way: one thing i WAS able to get after all my hard work here, put on an antidepressent !!
isnt that jolly? ugh.

Masadal

Sounds like you,ve had a tough run and sorry to hear its been so difficult.Good luck with your return.

jadm51

certainly cant get much worse - one thing I was blessed with, my wife has a good sense of humor about it all. We will be happy just getting our feet on Heathrow ground!

quoll

OMG and we think we have it tough here in Aus - you really havent had a very fortunate time at all and I think you are just about due for a luck change!!!!

Hope your planned move home to civilization works out smoothly for you!

jonfrank123

Hi

Good luck mate, my brother lived in the USA for a couple of years and was always going on about the excellent medical care, which it was for him. Only thing is it stops being great when you get ill and need it most and no one will insure you. Needless to say he is now back in the UK.

Cheap flight wise, there are some Charters to Canada that are cheap off season, by that meaning after mid September. If you can get to Montreal, then Some nice cheap flights to Gatwick on Air Transat, I just paid 280 quid. These guys will also do you a deal on one way tickets that are a lot cheaper than the usual BA, A Airlines con.

You might have seen these already but it's worth mentioning

www.airtransat.ca
Also Thomas Cook I believe

All the best

Jonathan

essexnick1

This kind of story makes me have second thoughts about my long term future in the good old US of A.
Land of the free(except healthcare) and the home of the slave....oops or is that brave?

Bevm

My observation, from watching a number of people I know well, is that all Americans are a bit of bad luck away from disaster, but they think it'll never happen to them

One women, graduate and breadwinner, was diagnosed with a chronic disease. Employer downsized her. (Coincidence? She didn't know.)

No health insurance anymore except by paying over $1000 a month to continue what the family had, and they had to pay, knowing that if they let it stop at all, the insurance company would cut them off and they'd never get insurance again, because of her illness.

She'd recently bought a house, taking on a steep mortgage to be in a good school area because she just could afford it on her salary. Now had to keep up the payments or sell at a loss and move to a place with bad schools, taking her kids away from their friends.

Ended up doing that, but soon all the family's saving were gone and she had to let the COBRA health insurance lapse, and then she could no longer get good medical treatment or afford the medicine she needed. She died, leaving her three children nothing.

This is not a fable.

Bev

petally

I'm sorry you have had such a hard time. I think it's true in the US that if you fall, there's no safety net and you fall hard. Thankfully we have had no serious health issues here in the US, but even the limited dealings with the health services here have made us realise how scary it must be to have to deal with a chronic illness, even with insurance. I hope you do manage to get to the UK. Good luck with it all.

michmel

Gosh, I am sorry to hear you've had such a bad time. Yes, it's tough in the USA. I am back in the UK on a month vacation trial to try it out before I come to the decision to move back or not. I have been in the state for 3 1/2 years (Orlando) and am not enjoying it. Well, yes there's sunshine, and yes, we are earning good money as our business is doing well, BUT, we are well aware that IF something medical happens to either one of us (and this is WITH health insurance) we know that the chips will certainly be down.

Here's an example for you. We have friends there who are originally from Pennsylvania and they had healthcare and one of their children got a tumour on the spine and even with healthcare, they ended up owning $250,000 in the end because the healthcare didn't cover Cancer treatment. So, in the end, they had a medical lien on their property and had to sell. They bought in the 90's so in 2005 had made a healthy profit of exactly $250,000 of which was taken straight off them at closing to the medical company.

The family are still in rented accommodation and still paying medical bills because after that happened their children has still had to have lots of apointments after recovery and on top of that the Mum got very sick and ended up in Hospital, so at the moment they are living in a property whereby the owner is now in foreclosure, so they are now not paying rent because they know the owner isn't paying his mortgage. They are in a right mess and they are very stressed because they don't know what their future holds.

It's just absolutely sad to hear all of these stories from various people we have met.

We certainly are aware of what COULD happen. Lots of Brits that we have met don't seem to have a care in the world over there and don't have healthcare and when I asked if they are concerned about various things in the USA they say, oh well the weathers much better and that's what counts.
I worry about the WHAT IF's and I think your story just goes to show that you would be much better off in the UK with a little hope and security that you will not be out on the streets at least.

I wish you all the luck in the world and hope that things get much much better for you when you go back to the UK.

EMMA08

Yeah the health costs are one of the reasons I didn't like the US, as they're absolutley ridiculous. I work in the healthcare field and one hospital charged a mildly dehydrated patient over $4000 for just one night in hospital (they'd just checked him over and got him re-hydrated). I also heard about a patient being charged $50 extra for the use of the siren in the ambulance as she was being taken to hospital. It really makes you appreciate the UK. The NHS is fair, just and in my opinion, right as medical attention is a basic human right.
I think it's scandalous that health companies are allowed to charge people so much , after all how can you put a price on life? As I left the state of CA was bankrupt and was cutting funds from medicaid programs for poor children. Even though I was lucky enough to have full health insurance through my ermployer and never had a problem, just knowing that millions of people were left without insurance in the richest country in the world made me angry. Whatever people think of the UK it does not allow people to die for the sake of money.

Black Sheep

Wow, must say I'm very surprised to hear all of these stories about American medical insurance woes. We left the States 5 years ago, so don't know if anything has changed since then... but we had an excellent medical plan through our employer, cost us about $200-250 per month for a family of 4 and covered virtually everything. Paid all my costs for instance to give birth, paid for virtually all preventive care (regular check ups), and covered as far as i know most costs for any medical conditions (up to something like $1 million). The price also included dental coverage, which didn't cover all expenses of course, but certainly made them affordable (unlike here in NZ, where you can't even get dental insurance - hence the propensity of NZers with noticeably bad teeth).

Even when I was working as a 'permanent temp' through Manpower in USA, I was able to get quite good medical insurance at a 'reasonable' price - not exactly cheap, but certainly well worth the money... again, it paid ALL of my obstetric ian and maternity hospital expenses when I was pregnant and when I gave birth, which costs were well in excess of what I had paid for the insurance over the years.

I was not aware that an insurance company could 'up' your current fees if you were found to have any kind of chronic or serious condition?? I do remember that some legislation was put in place some years ago to ensure that insurance must be 'portable' so that, if you changed jobs or moved state or such, then if you already had insurance, you could not be denied coverage from a new provider for any existing conditions that were covered in your previous plan... something like that? Have I got that wrong?

I would certainly recommend to ANY of you considering moving to the States that you immediatey get yourself a good medical insurance plan. I believe that self-employed persons pay significantly more for insurance than those working for companies, especially larger companies that can negotiate better rates for their employees. Really, the cost may seem a lot at first to those not used to paying anything at all for health care, but in the overall scheme of things, for most people the cost WILL be 'affordable', even if only just, - it's certainly well worth the peace of mind. And it's tax deductible, as are medical expenses...

Having said that, I have a not-very-well-off sister living in Louisiana who's getting on in years and has been known to have medical problems,who has never had medical insurance for herself or her family and swears that she doesn't need it/isn't worried about it. She apparently is able to get free or cheap care if/when she needs it. I've heard of people moving to certain states solely because medical costs are so much cheaper... worth checking into..

I've heard a few medical insurance (lack of, or not covering full costs) horror stories myself over the years, but for the most part, medical care in the parts of USA where I lived as an adult (West Coast, and SouthEast) is very very good, and there is an emphasis on preventative care which is a real plus (especially comparing it to the situation in NZ - a large portion of NZers just don't visit doctors at all, much less for 'routine check-ups' - just too expensive/unaffordable).

#1... I'm sorry to hear about your situation. I note that you were in Florida - It surprises me to read on these boards how many Britons want to move to Florida! The weather no doubt - but really, most Americans I know just don't think of Florida as a 'place to LIVE', unless they're retirees or already come from there!! I expect that many of the popular Florida cities are inhabited in large part by 'transients' and retirees and newcomers, which can often make a place feel particularly unriendly, and harder to get to learn the ropes as it were.

Where else in the USA were you living that you've had such unfortunate experiences? I was married to a Brit a long while back, and he found it so easy to find jobs in the States - because of his 'quaint accent 'I always maintained. I hear from friends/relatives that times are tough in the US right now - perhaps, as in our situation here in NZ where times are also tough, it pays to be a 'local' with friends/family as a safety net and a greater familiarity with 'how things are done'. Here in NZ, we've already lost MANY tens of thousands of dollars by just not knowing how to go about things in the 'Kiwi way'. The longer we live here, the more we realize that we may NEVER figure it all out - but we don't have any more money left to lose, so something has to give... I fear that one of us will lose our health from the immense stress of it all before we find a way to get out of this 'situation', so I think I may have atleast a small idea of how you're feeling at the moment. Wish I could offer ideas to you, but I'm an expat myself in a strange land with no idea myself of how to get out of this horrible situation! All I can offer is commiserations - hopefully you have some close friends where you are, that you get together with regularly? I have a good sense of humour too, but I find it needs atleast moderate 'companionship' to keep it healthy and alive, LOL!

Lenmil

A mate of mine lives in NY. One day he collapsed at work and was rushed to hospital. They thought a heart attack at first but turned out to be a virus. But if it was not for his employers health card he would be toast as they would not have treated him. He now is unemployed and can't afford any health care. Every American i know can't afford health insurance. Scary, very scary.

Lenmil

While i was in Oz. My boss's family moved from Florida back to OZ because they could not afford to live any more. They had not too bad jobs. But they were amazed how cheap things were in Oz compared to Florida. Now it's expensive in Oz compared to the UK food wise any way. Makes you wonder what's going on.

Dee_dee

#Black sheep, really interesting and informative post. I'm so sorry you've found yourself in a difficult situation living in NZ. It's amazing what I've learned on these boards about places we'd considered living before we moved here to Spain.

What nationality are you Black sheep? Are you British, I did a quick recce of old threads and saw how excited you were a while back on the prospect of your move to NZ, such a shame when the world comes crashing down on your dreams.

Lenmil

[QUOTE=Black Sheep;6555116]


#1... I'm sorry to hear about your situation. I note that you were in Florida - It surprises me to read on these boards how many Britons want to move to Florida! The weather no doubt - but really, most Americans I know just don't think of Florida as a 'place to LIVE', unless they're retirees or already come from there!! I expect that many of the popular Florida cities are inhabited in large part by 'transients' and retirees and newcomers, which can often make a place feel particularly unriendly, and harder to get to learn the ropes as it were.

I was told similar on a flight from Anchorage a few years ago. An eye doctor i sat next to told me he loved living in Alaska because he lived in Florida (too hot) and California (too hot and earthquakes) Funny how people have different opinions of places.