[yulaow]

Personally there are two things that scary me enough to never try to find a job in the US. The first one is how you handle the whole health system, I am hardly capable to find even a single thing good about it. The second is, indeed, the long hours per week you are willing to do often in salaried jobs (at least here in Europe when I have to do more hours I get them paid a lot more than standard hours, and even in that case there is a limitation on the number of extra hours that my employer cannot surpass).

[marincounty]

Yes, I think Europe has us beat on so many levels. I get hammered for admitting this, but living in the U.S. is stressful, and unrewarding on so many levels. There are many things to like about living here; political freedom, religious freedom, a system that eventually catches corrupt individuals, it's great for the wealthy. Now the negative; absolute slavery to your career/job, and making money/paper! I have seen people do horrendous things in order to get ahead financially. No, most people don't break the law in order to make money, but they break many moral laws. I have a successful sister who has literally lied and backstabed family members/friends in order to live in a good neighborhood in Los Angeles. Why do Americans work themselfs to death? Because there's a reality that's all to real here, and it's Homelessness. I am a proud American, but my list of our good traits is getting smaller each decade. I watch that program on T.V. about the Amish, and I literally tear up at how materialistic/evil Westerners have become. (Yes--I want to eventually live somewhere in Europe). Start the down voting--

[hueving]

If you are a software engineer you can get a job a company with good health insurance easily so that's a non-issue. The hours per week is a work culture specific to the business. Startups are more demanding, but you can easily find roles at large businesses where they are fine with 35-40 hours per week.

[FireBeyond]

I have exceptional health insurance, as far as US health insurance goes.

My insurer was in the news today because they denied air medical transport without prior authorization.

If you're in a serious motor vehicle accident and the paramedics call airlift to transport you to the trauma center, your insurer will deny coverage because they weren't called first to authorize it. And you'll be left holding a bill for between twenty and seventy thousand dollars.

[triangleman]

I did a search and found this:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/texas-mom-sues-insurance-denies...

Unbelievable!

[FireBeyond]

Right. And even apropos of anything else, you're then overruling the provider on scene with the patient (be it EMT or Paramedic pre-hospital) to that of an insurance company physician who doesn't have those eyes on the patient.

[Devthrowaway80]

Not sure I'd call it a non-issue - having recently immigrated to the US from Canada, having "good health insurance" by American standards has still left me significantly worse off than I was when I had universal healthcare.

[thedufer]

Its rare, but actually good health insurance exists here. I'm young/healthy enough that I haven't hit the limit of coverage, but I understand that's pretty hard to do, and deductibles/co-pays/drug costs are all reimbursable.

That said, I understand its a fairly unique situation.

[zrail]

That is an exceedingly unique situation. I have never heard of any of that being reimbursable. Even with the amazing insurance I had at my previous job, none of that was true.

Also, FYI, because of the ACA (Obamacare) there is no longer a lifetime or yearly cap on benefits.

[thedufer]

By limits to the coverage, I meant health issues that are not covered (I don't know what those might be, but I have to assume there's something).

As reference: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2014/07/24.html

There you can see a short list of companies with aforementioned insurance plans, and a description that was probably treated by most as exaggeration (it's not) - "health insurance where everything is paid for".

To refer back to earlier in this thread, I also work 35-40 hour weeks despite working at a startup. This is all balanced by what I suspect are slightly below-market salaries (NYC is expensive). We're hiring, in case any of this is appealing.

[grkvlt]

> By limits to the coverage, I meant health issues that are not covered [...]

Again, being British, this is staggering to me. I just kind of assumed that health insurance covered, you know, your health. Do you mean that with American health insurance I could get turned away from the hospital for having the wrong kind of disease or something? I would understand if it's cosmetic surgery or similar that isn't covered; but even here I have friends who have had rhinoplasty (nose jobs) on the NHS, for essentially cosmetic reasons! I sort of forget how good our system is, sometimes, with all the media complaints about it here...

[yulaow]

It is not a problem only for me but also for those around me. Let's say I am covered by my work, I would feel anyway really bad having a friend, parent, wife, etc not covered because they do other jobs in which they are not lucky or simply because they have not enough money to pay for it. I want to work in a society where the healt system automatically helps anyone who needs without putting him under various K$ of debt.

Obviously this is my personal point of view

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Believe me, a lot of us agree with you!

[jacalata]

Non issue? Until you want to take some time off work to try starting your own business, or travel, or be a stay at home parent, sure.