Comment by techdragon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by techdragon | Hacker News Reader

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I used to think it would be awesome to move to America for some startup job and live the good life... till I learned about healthcare and realised I didn't have it so bad in Australia not having to worry about bankruptcy for a broken leg. Now with the slow agonising slide of Australia into technocratic tyranny... and I'm not exaggerating some otherwise sensible policies to do with COVID or anything...

I'm talking about things like the Assistance and Access bill, data retention laws, the lack of usefully constitutionally protected rights, border policies like this, state governments banning basically harmless gel blasters while paintball remains legal, the bizarre online privacy law changes around the "eSafety Commission", efforts to ban cash transactions of $10000 or more, the currently underway efforts to "reform" the surveillance legislation giving them powers to modify data and take over accounts of anyone as they see fit (since theres no oversight mechanism beyond "trust we do our jobs")... the entire damn country has gone beyond "nanny state" and is getting worse every time I look at it...

But I'm still not seriously considering moving... Pre-Brexit I would have been seriously looking at moving to the UK by now since I'd probably have just spent most of my time in the rest of the EU and could avoid the worst of the UK's eccentricities... But Brexit... The USA remains a non-starter due to the insanity that is healthcare in the USA.

I'm Canadian so judge my opinion accordingly. If you're employed / well off, the US has a world class healthcare system. Canada's public healthcare is not very good, and we have no real private options. People who can afford to routinely go the the US for tests and treatment. We (canadians) like to gloat about our great system, and maybe it's ok for some things, but bottom line, no matter your personal priorities or ability to pay, you're in the same line for government run services as everyone else. Some people may agree with that, but probably less so when they can't get the help they need.

I know there are lots of insurance shenanigans I'm probably glossing over, but I still wouldn't rule out the US on the grounds of healthcare if you have a good job / career

Moving to a country where my healthcare is tied to my employment feels a lot like dystopia to me. Also while healthcare struggles on barely functioning in the USA at the moment, there’s no real guarantee that it won’t be the first thing to collapse in the next financial disaster due to world shatteringly impressive mismanagement by decades of private companies squeezing the very blood and sweat out of American workers by way of ever increasing healthcare costs. It’s like a slow burn undermining the entire US economy.

And I didn’t talk to much about Canadian healthcare because I know it’s more fair but I know it varies from province to province so it’s not really consistent.

I would rather have healthcare tied to employment and enforceable rights over a tyrannical government that can easily spy on everyone

The US border forces has the same ability to demand access to phones as they do in Australia though?

They do, but Australia has also recent legislation requiring backdoored encryption iirc

The US is on their way to the same sort of tyranny don't get me wrong, but AU seems a few steps ahead

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