Rougesvp

You can't blame the Brits for complaining about the weather!

Be fair... it is awful!

I'm stuggling with sunny and 60F here today!

nethead

I'm married to an American, we thought the grass might greener on the otherside, but it isn't I knew before we left it was the wrong decision, but felt like it was too late to change my mind after we had paid for my visa, had a house etc...

nethead

I think you'll find I didn't complain about anything, just because I'd rather not have moved to the US doesn't mean I'm miserable here, I make the most of it, try not to be too negative and live my life. So quite your snarky comments. Thanks.

airways

Grow up and regain your British sense of humour. Do you remember British self depreciating humour?

I was not having a go at you, I was remarking on how WE as nation need to complain about everything or we are not happy. Humour, try it on for size........

nethead

You quoted a post that asked me a question, so I thought I'd answer you, and it seems most of your posts are critical of the the UK. My sense of humour's fine thanks.

Rougesvp

Eh! Eh! Eh! Eh! Calm Down! Calm Down!

nethead

I'm perfectly calm, I'm not so sure about airways

airways

Yep, its another thing we British do. We are allowed to be critical of our home country.

If you are coming back here you are going to be pretty miserable if you have forgotten the backbone of British society, is self depreciating humour, sarcasm and the right to complain about anything an everything.

It's what we do, rather well.......

I quoted your post by accident, forgot to untick the default setting of quote message in reply.........

nethead

The funny thing is when you move away from your home country you tend to become more defensive of it...

Nutmegger

Any connection to self-deprecating?

nethead

Haha must be the more you use it the more you lose it.

Bob

You can also have wonderful treatment, but also still have massive wait times in the US too, or find that you cover is cancelled and there's nothing you can do about it.

Anyway, personal anecdotes don't really mean much, anyone can find good and bad stories for either, but it's the whole picture which matters, and that's the basic blanket level of cover.

But if we are going to play the anecdotes game, my mother who's 72 recently broke her wrist, was at the hospital and seen within minutes, had a whole body scan and the density stuff etc within the hour and was able to leave a couple hours later. On the other hand, cousin in the US who has great employer benefits, when their kid just broke his arm, he waited in the ER for 5 hours to get seen. When he did get seen, they did the scan and cast very quickly, checked it again a couple days later and had to reset the bone and do more stuff, all very good care.

Completely unfair comparisons though, because my mother fell over 10am on a Tuesday morning, Cousin's were at the ER on a Friday night at 6pm.

keaki80

Incredible posts - and VERY lengthy. I am supposed to be studying, why did I start reading all this , it's so easy to get distracted!! I want to say to the original poster that "is the grass greener" thread is still active, and asks exactly the same question as yours; the answers, though, are slightly different.
This one mentions healthcare - a lot - and sounds very frightening to people who are debating coming here. I am an RN and feel able to say, having been trained by the NHS and worked for the NHS for 20+yrs, that the NHS is not a wondrous thing. It has great aims, works well in an emergency situation, but try telling that to the OAP who needs hip/knee replacement for a chronic condition and is put on a very long waiting list, only on the day of surgery to be cancelled due to staff shortage, etc. etc. It happens, ALL the time.
The elderly in UK aren't treated terribly well. It isn't the England I grew up in where you are respectful of elders and police/authority.
I'm not saying that is the case ALL the time, it just happens that way here - happens that way there.
People die in USA because of a poor healthcare system and guess what - it happens in UK, too. People die in trolleys, in corridors, get sent home sick/dying, etc.
USA is not unique in that.
From my observation and experience here(in America), the elderly - and there are a lot of them - seem to get treated well. They are respected and have a far better lifestyle than the elderly I came into contact with in UK.
This is just an observation and opinion.
I just wanted to point out to the original poster that it isn't all doom and gloom in the US, and that the UK has a lot of flaws,too.

Sally Redux

In other words you were replying to her post.

We've seen so many come and go on here, telling us what to do when they haven't even left Britain, when you get here maybe I'll listen to your lectures.

Giantaxe

The problem in the US isn't so much the elderly - who have access to Medicare - but more those that are under age 65 who have little or no insurance. Being without insurance in the window between, say, 50 and 65 is very very scary in the US, both from a medical and from a financial standpoint. Once you reach Medicare eligibility, you're in relatively good shape in the US imo.