[jahnu]

Regardless of what one thinks of the tax it's clear one can't compare salaries after taxation. Fact is I don't spend anything on healthcare. In the US I would need insurance. I don't save for my kids university education because it will be free. In the US I would have to.

Comparing pre tax income is more useful, by and large.

[jstelly]

For what it's worth, I'm almost certain that every company in this survey provides health insurance at no additional cost (or maybe a small cost, but probably not) to all of the employees surveyed.

[dogma1138]

Insurance in the us is also cheaper in paying 2300 a year for private insurance (AXA) so I won't have to deal with the NHS on every silly issue.

[phaemon]

No it's not. Public healthcare spending in the US is higher, per capita, than spending on the NHS.

And how the buggery are you managing to spend £2300 a year on health insurance in the UK? That's crazy expensive. Ok, it's less than people in the US pay, but it's still mad for UK.

[dogma1138]

2300 isn't that expensive BUPA would cost you nearly double also please don't compare the public healthcare spending it has nothing to do with the actual prices you end up paying.

The health care expenditure in the US is the biggest in the world but that's including all the prices that insurance companies pay for treatment and services. If the US stops charging 3000$ for an MRI scan it's expenditure will go down drastically (an MRI costs about 300$ in most European countries) but it might not have any affect on what the individual ends up paying.

[phaemon]

I last looked about 6 years ago, right enough, but then £120 a month was the maximum charge I could find, that was with zero excess and get paid money for any nights in an NHS hospital, etc etc. I'm not sure what I'd need to add on to get it up to £200 a month - a free chauffeur for any time spent sick? ;-)

I suppose prices could have increased a fair bit since then. Also, I note you're in London. I'm in Scotland, so we actually have a different NHS, and it does generally get rated higher than NHS England.

I can compare public healthcare spending as that's the money that comes out of your taxes. Americans are taxed more for their public healthcare than we are in the UK for the NHS. They also pay more for private healthcare than we do in the UK. So your claim that it's more expensive here is simply wrong.

[njs12345]

As a counterpoint to this post, I have free private insurance with work and never bother using it because the NHS works so well for day to day things.

[dogma1138]

NHS is good when you are bleeding and need to go to the emergency room. Preventative medicine and specialist care is horrible under NHS at least in inner London, why would I want to wait 6 weeks to see an orthopedist?

[tamana]

Why does loction matter? Are you prohibited from seeing a doctor outiside of inner London?