Why do you feel better when you go to Europe, or even to Disneyland? Humans crave walkable neighborhoods. American and Canadian infrastructure is the main reason we have so many mental health problems.
source: am canadian.
I recall getting good, quick care when I worked in the US and had a good HMO.
The whole 'american healthcare bad/unaffordable' argument is something that I hear quite a bit on the internet, but pretty much never do in real life.
Like in many other things, the US is a country of extremes. At its best, the US health system is better than Canada's. At its worst, it's worse.
So it's pretty much down to whether you are a have or a have-not.
Insurance can be contingent on different things:
> Where can I receive care?
> If a provider is not in a plan’s network, the insurance company may not pay for the service(s) provided or may pay a smaller portion than it would for in-network care. This means the enrollee who goes outside of the network for care may be required to pay a much higher share of the cost. This is an important concept to understand, especially if you are not originally from the local Stanford area.
* https://vaden.stanford.edu/insurance-referral-office/health-...
If you happen to be in a car crash, make sure your ambulance drive takes you to an in-network hospital.
What bubble are you in? For some of us, we make enough money that paying 400/month for insurance while our employer does the same isn't a big deal. For us software engineers, it's no big deal. For the 50% of people making under 60k a year, that's a large chunk of their income.
I hear it constantly from friends nationwide (I have a very large extended circle for a few reasons), media, and my wife, who is a healthcare worker and deals with insurance constantly (as does anyone in healthcare in the US) or my mother (also in healthcare). And of course, we have lots of friends who are in healthcare. And I hear it from my parents, who, as aging people, have more healthcare needs. Your insurance company gets to delay or prevent access to prescriptions, surgeries, or physical therapy as long as they desire.
I'm in Philadelphia, which is one of the biggest cities in the US and where healthcare makes up a much larger than usual portion of our local economy [0]. You can find numerous other sources to support this, Philly is a huge biomedical / healthcare hub. It's almost like being in LA for film or SF for tech.
Where insurance really starts to suck is if you and your healthcare providers think you need care, but the insurance company says no. My wife experiences rejections from her patient's insurance companies daily. Happens with Medicare too.
0. https://www.besthealthdegrees.com/careers/the-top-10-cities-...
You pay your taxes and you gets your health care.
As opposed to the US where even if you pay your premiums you may not get coverage if you go to the "wrong" (out of network) hospital, or the "wrong" (OON) doctor even if in the right hospital. Be sure to inform your ambulance driver of your in-network hospitals so you get taken to the "correct" hospital after a car crash.
When my father had to get new heart valves the most that had to be paid was hospital parking.
source: am canadian.
Source: Am USian.
(Also worth noting that you can add private health care to your menu. If you balk at the cost, welcome to the US model)
It takes a single search to find many different studies and meta-studies about correlations between noise, air pollution and mental illness, cardiovascular health, life expectancy and others.
I encourage you to look for studies about a metropolitan area near you:
Car traffic is not harmless. Noise is not harmless. It's just that those who contribute the most to pollution anr noise usually don't experience it every day for hours on end, or even during their sleep.
If you prefer esoteric subjects to obvious ones, I'd recommend this study:
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/11/5/467
If you are looking for proofs for the obvious (living at a busy road makes you sick), there are plenty of studies about this subject as well.
Cancer rates rise, IQ drops, life expectancy drops, all in clear correlation to your immediate environment.
As a German, also the pedestrian's and cyclist's utopia that Europe is painted as on US media also sickens me.
It's purely a matter of money and inheritance.
Good luck finding a non-toxic place to live in a big city with an average wage and *without owning a car*.
Possible, but exceptional.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that I'm pretty sure I have hearing loss from walking next to trucks that make an unbelievable amount of noise. Garbage trucks are the worst offenders in my experience.
It's definitely gotten to the point where I have to find alternative routes from the main streets for my own safety.
And isn't Seattle supposed to be one of the most walkable cities in the US?
Probably because you're on vacation?
Why is there nothing that walkable city enthusiasts will claim walkable cities won't fix?
Feels like NYC is the only place, and it's great, just expensive to live in.
There's actually a lot of walkable areas of many American cities or alternatively smaller rural towns. Generally, the older the city the easier these neighborhoods are to find. even LA has walkable neighborhoods (even though you'll still need a car to get around in general). But yes... expensive.
I hope the rising popularity of e-bikes makes some lower density cities more navigable without a car. Pretty much all "stroads" should be converted to 2 car lanes and a turning lane in the middle, which would leave room for protected bike lanes.
In America, "going to the mall" is almost always a trip you get into your car for, even if you live in a big city! You can't just drop in to get something as you walk around.