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You have options – Why we left the U.S. and moved back to Europe

sam-the-man.com

21–30 of 142 posts

Re: You have options – Why we left the U.S. and moved back to Europe

#21
post #3

I moved from London to Lisbon and then to Brazil. I get the same kinda "wtf" reaction from Brazilians. The bottom line is, with all that's wrong in Brazil and given my circumstances and my remote well paid job, I'm a lot happier living here than anywhere else in the world. I truly love this place. I don't think one needs to try to make a place work for them. Sure you can try and adapt. But ultimately most people read…

I'm guessing not many of them tried to live in London? It's a dream until reality smashes your head open :D

Re: You have options – Why we left the U.S. and moved back to Europe

#22
post #5

It's funny that Florida has such a pristine reputation internationally. I'm from the Southern US, and my view of Florida is that it's where 80% of the crazies in the US live. Anytime I see a batsh*t crazy headline? Florida. Check the articles you see from now on and you'll notice a pattern. So to all the internationals: if you like the US but not its extremes, definitely don't move to Florida.

[deleted]

Re: You have options – Why we left the U.S. and moved back to Europe

#23
With all of the options he had he decided to move to ex-soviet republic... Let's see how long you'll manage to stay there before ludicrous levels of corruption at all levels of society start making expensive healthcare in the US seem insignificant in comparison. I say this as Ukrainian/Armenian who was born and lived in the USSR and seen my father, who's a brilliant engineer, stagnate in the professional culture that pushed him aside because of his ethnicity or because he became a threat to some old bastard who's been warming his seat for 40 years instead of retiring.

Re: You have options – Why we left the U.S. and moved back to Europe

#25
post #6
post #2

The US has a lot more to offer than Florida, especially when it comes to the complaints (heat, health care and mass shootings) in the article.

Can you explain the healthcare differences? From what I know it is pretty bad all over the USA compared to say France or Germany.

Healthcare is one of those areas where your experience varies dramatically based on how rich you (or your employer) are. I had nothing but good experiences when I was on Google's health plan - basically walk in to any of a number of top-notch, very wealthy clinics, don't pay a cent, get great care. Ditto when I was on my mom's government-employee plan. I was hospitalized with an acute kidney infection when I was 15, one that would've killed me had I lived 50 years earlier. Immediately got referred to a top-notch children's hospital, attentive doctors, pumped full of antibiotics and made all better again, and my family didn't pay a cent of what would've been a $200-300K hospital bill. Similarly, my dad's hospitalization at the end of his life cost close to a million bucks, of which we didn't pay anything.

At the other end of the spectrum, if you don't have health insurance, you will be bankrupted by the slightest medical emergency. You'll get care, but the doctors generally won't care about you. Oftentimes you end up going to hospitals that are poorer, with more overworked nursing staff that more frequently make mistakes. Even having private health insurance these days or a HDHP from a smaller organization still is a much lower level of service, with much higher amounts paid out of pocket. When I left Google I bought a private individual plan from Anthem, the same insurer I had at Google; despite it being the same company, my existing doctor wouldn't take the new plan, and I couldn't even see the same doctor I'd just waltzed in to see on Google's plan without paying $400 out of pocket or so.

Much of Obamacare's achievement and Obamacare's pain comes from being an attempt to spread the misery around, so that we don't have a caste system for healthcare in the U.S. It's meant that 20-30M people who were previously unable to see doctors at all now have basic health care, but it's also meant that many people for whom health care used to be completely covered, free, now have to pay something close to the real cost of their care, and they're finding out just how much the experience sucked for the rest of America.

Re: You have options – Why we left the U.S. and moved back to Europe

#26

The grass is always greener on the other side. Being born in Europe and living here is suffocating me.

Europe is a big place and covers at least 6 different kinds of lifestyle and 3 kinds of weather. That's a few shades of grass to try before you give up entirely?

Re: You have options – Why we left the U.S. and moved back to Europe

#27
post #23

With all of the options he had he decided to move to ex-soviet republic... Let's see how long you'll manage to stay there before ludicrous levels of corruption at all levels of society start making expensive healthcare in the US seem insignificant in comparison. I say this as Ukrainian/Armenian who was born and lived in the USSR and seen my father, who's a brilliant engineer, stagnate in the professional culture that…

Being a high-skilled person with remote work makes all the difference. Plus it's the EU and getting better.

Re: You have options – Why we left the U.S. and moved back to Europe

#28
post #23

With all of the options he had he decided to move to ex-soviet republic... Let's see how long you'll manage to stay there before ludicrous levels of corruption at all levels of society start making expensive healthcare in the US seem insignificant in comparison. I say this as Ukrainian/Armenian who was born and lived in the USSR and seen my father, who's a brilliant engineer, stagnate in the professional culture that…

The Ukraine, Armenia, and USSR != Estonia. Estonia is regularly ranked as one of the least corrupt countries in the world, on par with Japan: https://www.transparency.org/country/EST , among the many other superlatives you can find listed in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia . (If he's going to worry about something, I would suggest that since he worries about such rare events as movie theater shootings, he ought to worry a lot more about Russia invading Estonia...)

Re: You have options – Why we left the U.S. and moved back to Europe

#29
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to be clear Health Insurance and the US companies that supply it often do so poorly (Kaiser isn't too bad except for mental health), but the healthcare itself can be top notch. People travel from all over the world to get the best treatment, but basic healthcare (preventative etc.) is expensive and not even uniformly acceptable.

The quality of health care is so high in Europe that I really cannot imagine any European going to the US for treatment apart from perhaps very few experimental treatments that are not permitted in Europe.

Unsure what it's like in Europe, but when my Canadian cousin had a brain tumor, he went to the U.S. for treatment. Canada's health care system is on average better than the U.S, but when you have a brain tumor, you don't want an average doctor, you want the best. And by and large, these are still in the U.S. because they can make an order of magnitude more money than they could in a country with socialized medicine.

Re: You have options – Why we left the U.S. and moved back to Europe

#30
post #5

It's funny that Florida has such a pristine reputation internationally. I'm from the Southern US, and my view of Florida is that it's where 80% of the crazies in the US live. Anytime I see a batsh*t crazy headline? Florida. Check the articles you see from now on and you'll notice a pattern. So to all the internationals: if you like the US but not its extremes, definitely don't move to Florida.

http://reddit.com/r/floridaman
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