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Comment by mgkimsal | Hacker News Reader

If you are actually in the UK, you have some amazing benefits that US-based folks don't get in the form of healthcare. I know, yes, technically, you're paying for it in taxes, but it's there for you all the time, regardless of your employment status or ability to pay for an insurance policy.

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> If you are actually in the UK, you have some amazing benefits that US-based folks don't get in the form of healthcare.

So? That's pretty irrelevant since any good developer job in the US comes with excellent health coverage.

The healthcare that comes with any good developer job is the same healthcare that management thinks is good enough for their employees. It is rarely the case that it is good by objective standards.

And when you lose your job... you lose access to that "excellent health coverage".

Health insurance being so culturally tied to "employment" is ... very problematic.

You don't have to preach that to me (I agree), but it does mean that you shouldn't really consider universal healthcare to be an additional benefit when comparing UK & US developers. The US developer also has healthcare not factored into their salary.

Sorry it wasn't clear, I'm actually in the US.

In addition to more vacation days, maternity leave, etc

Contractors don't get those. In theory they get paid higher as compensation for not getting them, in practice they generally get the same money with less benefits.

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