morayeel

I work for Asda(Walmart) just filed my taxes.. I earned $17,ooo last year. For me it's a daily struggle to meet the bills.. No public transporation means I have to keep my car running, another worry. Don't know what the public transportation is like there anymore so I really can't compare as don't know the costs and availability. Rent here is around $550 per month for one bedroom. I am in Mississippi. There is a low cost healthclinic but for bloodwork they still charge me $60 based on my income. I have insurance thru work but it's a $3,ooo deductible so really not much use. I went to dentist last week and have a broken tooth which the cap will cost me $400... Not sure which line of work your hubby is in. Feel free to ask any questions as I am not a high wage earner.. Not much help over here in the U.S and I know I have read the N.H.S is not what is used to be but I'd rather wait for an operation than go bankrupt plus if I am off work I don't have any safety net..

aless02

civilservant

As someone who is the Financial Controller of a Hospital and Nursing Facility, I can tell you that was the state requirement for Medicaid, not the SNF being an a@@.

vikingsail

I agree aless02 it is very sad and I am not being pious to the original poster. This is the reality for many people in the US and probably the UK. Read this and please be warned if you are thinking of the US as a potential solution to all your woes. The major difference is that the US has very little in the way of 'safety nets' for capturing and assisting those who are experiencing issues. Sure the programs may exist but accessing them is often convoluted. To a new or returning immigrant nigh on impossible. $3000 deductible for healthcare is sadly fairly standard. And so those in the UK are clear that means each year you must spend $3000 of your own money before your health insurance will pay anything. May not sound much to some but I don't have a spare 3K to spend on health each year. I suppose the other way of looking at it is deduct 3k from whatever salary you earn. Once you fully understand that pray and be extremely thankful they never take the NHS away.

durham_lad

That $3,000 deductible is on top of the monthly premium she will be paying through her work at Walmart.

Last year my wife and I were paying monthly premiums of $756 for the 2 of us, and then we had a $1,500 annual deductible. We could have had a cheaper plan that kept us in a very narrow network of doctors in the area we live but we like to travel a lot (we are retired) and needed health insurance away from the city that we lived in.

mrken30

That sounds quite a reasonable cost. I have no idea of you age, but for a plane like that for 2 people I would have expected to pay more like $1000 +. What is the max out of pocket? Mine is $12k.

Pulaski

The reality is that UK income taxes are higher than in the US, especially for higher earners, so while healthcare in the UK is great value for those on below average income, it actually isn't great value for those with higher earnings.

It is is easy to complain about health insurance premiums and deductibles but the reality is that healthcare has to be paid for somehow and better informed Americans are perfectly well aware that if you rely on "the government" to pay for healthcare "the government" only has money that it takes from tax payers, it isn't "free".

mrken30

Income tax in the US is not that different to the UK, if you add in State and city income taxes. Property tax is much more in the US, and sales tax is much higher in the UK.

Tax Comparisons Around The World: Top Countries | MoveHub

The biggest difference is that there are a lot of deductions that can be used.

scrubbedexpat091

I pay less income tax now in Canada vs when I was in the US and I get healthcare on top. Pretty good value.

I was from a high tax state so someone from a low tax state may end up worse off.

On top of that I get quarterly sales tax rebates as well since we are low income to offset the sales tax we pay.

Pulaski

You live in a high-tax state, so what you posted may be true from your perspective. .... However whether you live a high- or low-tax state is irrelevant to the extent that if the US were to move to "government funded" healthcare, taxes would have to rise substantially. For those on low to moderate income the tax rise may well be less than the cost of health insurance, for those on higher income the tax rise would be greater than their health insurance premiums and medications costs.

Many of your posts on taxes, property, and cost of living are heavily skewed because of where you choose to live, in a high cost, high tax state. ..... My property tax bill is around the same as I paid for my 2-bed terraced house in London (I assume that the modest property tax rises in the US have been matched in London), despite having four times the indoor area and fifty times the land area of my house in London.

mrken30

It looks like council tax has gone up quite a bit. Up about 30% in 8 years.

Find out how much council tax you pay for your property - mycounciltax.org.uk

Given that the exchange rate was $2 when I moved the UK council tax and US property tax are similar. With the weak pound it's cheap , but it won't always be like that.

durham_lad

I was 61 and my wife was 60. It was a retiree plan from my ex-employer, max o.o.p. was $10k. In the 2 years before we moved back to England (2015 and 2016) our total costs including premiums were $10,909 and $10,700. The premiums would have gone up to $838/month for 2017 had we stayed.

It looks like my costs are about half the average for the USA per person.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/...45-per-person/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunr.../#714905d46dea

Pulaski

If that is true then, even using a constant exchange rate (I favour the long term average of around $1.60), then my property taxes are lower than for my small home in London. As you said, sales taxes in the US are a lot lower, and my income tax and other mandatory deductions are lower, including health insurance and expenses as a "mandatory" deduction.

Giantaxe

It's certainly true that the NHS "redistributes" wealth from rich to poor. But given that the US spends over twice the percentage of GDP on healthcare than the UK does for seemingly little benefit, I would say that comparatively speaking healthcare in the UK is a great value for almost all.

Similarly one could argue that your posts are heavily skewed because of where you live, in a low cost, low tax state.

kodokan

Do you include school fees in your calculations, Pulaski? Where I've lived in the US so far, the choice seems to be between high property taxes and excellent public schools, or low property taxes and 'having' to go private for a decent education.