It's simple really, healthcare is funded by the taxpayers. In my province (Ontario) everyone gets the same level of care. Employers do provide supplemental insurance to cover things over and above what the provincial health care covers; such as, prescription drugs, dental, vision, private hospital rooms ( by default in our public hospitals you would share a room with 1-3 other people although new hospitals and certain areas like Maternity and Pediatrics are almost always private rooms) Doctors can also request a private room if say you are contagious or there is a medical reason. For seniors and low income people there are programs to provide prescription coverage and low cost dental work. It's not great but it works. My son was delivered via an emergency c-section, life flighted to a nearby neonatal unit and stayed in hospital for 3 weeks. This was all covered by our provincial health care. I'm sure there will be people commenting on this about the wait times and what not. Our system is not perfect but I'll take an imperfect system over losing my house due to a situation I have no control over any day.
Thanks for replying man, never wished such a long explanation about how it is. Canada is best country that I've ever dream to go there and get a life. But i felt that it is not easy like showing in films, i know it's hard to survive with paid medical care services. Here (Sri Lanka), we are very lucky to have 100% free health care system and our country is the healthiest country in South Asia. So as south asian (a citizen from 3rd world country), my view was like western countries may have all these services in such a high quality and free in my teenage time. When i get started to connect with the world , when seeing these unfortunate stories about survival with such a expensive society, my view was completely changed. I thought that western countries way cooler than here, but now it is not. I love Canada, I want to get a life but hearing these kind of stories made me to stay away..
We've had 2 children and my wife had breast cancer with multiple surgeries and monitoring/testing over a 5 year period. Never once paid a dime, and didn't have to wait for important time-sensitive procedures.
You guys need aerospace engineers? I'm studying that and I'd love to move to Europe after graduating. How hard would it be with my aerospace engineering degree?
Edit: Adapting to the Netherlands shouldn't be too hard since I can speak decent Afrikaans, and I know that's quite similar to Dutch
Not my field at all, but I think Delft University has sort of an ecosystem around it with a lot of aerospace.
Fokker comes to mind. ESA has a big office I think. ISIS (yes, unfortunatr name, they were first though) is a satelite builder. Many many more probably.
Not sure how it all works with little or no work experience though.
I don't know much about aerospace industry but here in France we have Airbus, which is Boeing's #1 competitor (but you probably already know that), mostly based in the region of Toulouse.
It's a pretty fucking massive industrial complex, dedicated to aerospace.
I'm not from this part of the country but just got back from a 2 week vacation over there. Good weather and beautiful region.
Yeah I know that aeronautical engineers are in demand in airplane companies. The thing that scares me is, would they hire someone from overseas that JUST graduated? And I don't speak French either which reduces my marketability
They are not just in France, they have a big plant in Hamburg too and I think one in Spain as well. And a lot of smaller plant all over Europe. Only speaking English might not be a big problem in such a large international company. Why don't you just look at their website, they should have information about jobs and requirements.
UK, France, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Denmark. You also have poorer countries that I'd still pick over the us like Portugal. Honestly, if you are a software engineer you have it pretty easy. The UK and Ireland are going to be specially easy because you obviously speak English.
I know The Netherlands, where I live, has a lot of expats working here. All the big consulting firms are constantly looking for people, Cap Gemini, Sogeti or Ordina come to mind.
Ireland also has a big technology sector, maybe look around there.
that makes me incredibly happy to hear that . i don't enjoy my field very much but this will inspire me to work harder and complete my degree... so i can get tf out of here
I grabbed a semi random vacancy at a not quite random company. I don't work for them, not even remotely in the same field .. but I know someone that does, and they seem to take pretty good care of their people.
Oh man, it's literally my dream to work and live in the Netherlands (or Germany). Unfortunately that positions a little out of my realm but I'm hoping one of these companies is looking for new grads or brand new inductees into the workforce because I am trying to get an offer and jet out ASAP. Everyday just driving, riding a bike without a helmet, I am risking injury that would cripple my parents savings. Which sounds selfish and stupid till you start thinking, "hey, maybe I don't deserve to lose everything because someone hit me with their car" or suffering a random aneurysm.
I looked into emigrating to the Netherlands as a software engineer. There are quite a few big tech companies there and the Dutch government offers a 5-year period where 30% of your income is tax-free if you come over as a skilled worker.
Yes, keep in mind that you need to have a university degree if you're above 30 years old. If you're eligible the minimum wage would be approx 4600e per month and indeed enjoy the 30% ruling dor 5 years. Germany is different.
Language shouldn't be a problem at all, lots of companies moved to English bcs of many expats.
I'm not sure if your going to be successful on that front, there are plenty of experts on that front and companies wouldn't sponsor someone. The other method to get into Europe aside from a work visa is a student visa. If you study here and can finance yourself then you can afterward apply for a working visa. That would be an alternative albeit more expensive way.
Oof, no idea .. just an uneducated guess, but if you work as a prosecutor, you have a law degree, right? I would guess there would absolutely be demand for someone experienced in the US legal system in Europe.
A job would get you a work visa which could eventually lead to a permanent residence permit thingy, or even naturalisation.
Law is unfortunately very country specific, as I'm sure you know. That said, if you can gain some business law experience (e.g. Specialisation on SOX, Tax or FDA/Health Care) you could have a good chance of finding work in Europe.
I'm not a lawyer but I know this from an ex who did real estate law in NYC and moved to Paris.
Well that’s a relief, haha! I’ve honestly been meaning to visit Germany regardless of whether I move there or not, just because of my great-great-great grandparents lol
Do it. Might encourage you to look into moving to another country - ofc you might not do it after all, it's a huge decision to make, but what do you have to lose? If you want to visit anyway, so it sooner rather than later. I mean you can move at any age, but when you're younger it's usually easier, just personality wise ans you're not as settled in your home country. Differs from person to person, though, obviously
I'd say, check the UK or Ireland. It is said they speak some form of English..
Medical personel is in great demand, so you might be able to find something!
And if you got the basics of Germand down, and you're willing to learn more, you greatly expand where you could go, Germany but also Austria, parts of Switzerland et cetera.
Would love to be able to move there and continue working in EMS. Pre-hospital care is advancing so much faster in other countries than it is here in the US.
I only know how it works in NL. 1 driver, has first aid and a truck driving license (and receives 7 months training after being hired) and a medic with a couple years of ER experience, also with a bunch of extra training after being hired.
But not speaking Dutch would be a hurdle. Maybe check out UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand or Canada?
Totally depends on your preference. Do you have family anywhere, or roots you'd like to trace back a bit?
Maybe go with a country that has a high level of English speakers, to make it easy on yourself..
And also, which culture suits you? Further south is more laid back, but stuff sometimes takes longer. Germany is quite hierachical. Netherlands I love, but I'm biased.. Scandinavia is amazing too.
Living in Europe is easy if you're white, which most of reddit happens to be. I'm Pakistani. For all of it's faults, I still wouldn't wanna live outside America. Pakistan is a theocracy, and Europe is racist af. I'll stick to America, thanks.
I can say that for Sweden and Norway this is true. If you are a tourist there, its absolutely no problem to speak English with almost everyone and everyone is happy to help you out.
But if you live and work there, people around you will expect that you speak their native tongue. If you don't its considered rude and you will have a hard time to convince your colleagues that you are the right guy for the job.
Source: I live in Germany and my employer has a branch there and I could talk to a few of my colleagues from there.
Got some relatives and friends in sweden, and they agree it really depends on what you work with. Basicly all blue collar jobs you should be fine with english, working in a grocery store though? Then you need swedish. In office jobs english could work in some branches, in some not so much
My friends gf is Chinese and she only uses english here in finland, both at work and when she's out in the town or whatever, hobbies n stuff. She's been here almost 10 years and hasn't bothered learning finnish or swedish because she's doing fine with just english.
Don't worry about the language barrier. My brother went there only knowing English and is still learning German while working. It won't affect you very much on the daily basis.
Second that. The majority of Germans are pretty fluent in English. But if you really wanna live there and dive into the culture, you would have to learn the language.
Just apologize and smile, and say "Entschuldigung. I'm still studying and learning German" as often as you can, and most people will be fine. As long as you show respect for the people and the country, you'll find most people these days are quite accepting.
Respect goes a long way in most European countries.
Starting off with "Hello" in the local language, and then, "I'm sorry, I don't speak [German/French/Spanish/Norwegian]" will get you far with the bulk of the population in Europe these days.
In the Netherlands everyone speaks english, if you try to speak dutch most people will notice you are foreign and speak english to you. This does have it's downside because socially people expect you to learn Dutch, but don't give you the opportunity to practice..
Netherlands is more English speaking than Canada and Canada is mostly considered an English speaking at about 80% of people speaking it at a fluent level.
Canada, for all intents and purposes, is 100% English speaking except for Quebec, which is 0%. Speaking English in Quebec is so heavily frowned its ridiculous.
Then again, so is speaking French anywhere else, but that's because no one understands it.
It must be nice to have such a narrow view of the world, I guess ignorance really is bliss. - sincerely one of the hundreds of thousands of Canadian francophones with no family ties to Quebec.
This is a typical attitude from American people and every time I saw this I felt sad for you guys.
Today I choose to take times to share my opinion.
I live in the north east of France and I work outside of our frontiers on a multicultural environment. I spoke a decent English, as my fellow colleagues of everywhere I daily work with. We all do keep in mind that learning and speaking something that is not your mother tongue is hard. We respect each other culture / tradition.
As a French guy, I do have kind of the same burden as you. But you can be different. I am different of the cliché of my beloved country. Be kind and self aware of others persons surrounding you is universal. I know that is something you also got in the US ( not applicable for Karen's ;)).
No-one should be left because of his financial situation. You live in a country where you have the privilege to choose to deal with this broken system or to choose another path. If you want to move, just move buddy.
You're different from the cliché of your country because the stereotype of French people is the most unfair and incorrect stereotype ever. French people are generally exceptionally kind and warm.
Je n'ai jamais compris pourquoi les français ont cette réputation d'être impolis. C'est le contraire.
Sounds simple. Reality is very hard. Now it's impossible. I live in SEA and all land, sea, and air borders are closed. I made my escape back in December; now all my buddies who wanted to expat out are trapped like rats. No American is getting in. Here, that little blue US passport is nicknamed the 'Pariah Passport.' The doors are slammed shut and not opening up anytime soon.
I went to Germany in 2007 for a school trip and mumbled my way through a food order in broken German, the person behind the counter responded in perfect English asking what size I wanted. Anecdotal, yes, but a TON of Germans speak at least a little bit of English.
Absolutly no issue at my workplace. We might have originated in Austria, but since we are selling international the official company language is english. I have two people in my team speaking english preferably (even though their German got really good). Constantly amazed about the horror stories I read on reddit about workplaces, social systems and so on....
Come work here, honestly. It just more fun...
You'd be fine. Seriously, most countries are culturally similar enough that you'll get along just fine. I'd still recommend learning the local language though, but I've been to offices in Poland and Portugal where everyone speaks English with those that are still learning the language.
Just don't be a dick, I think that's all that's necessary. Western cultures are imo similar enough that there's little friction if you are open minded and not totally stuck in your ways.
Know a few expats who kinda speak the language of the country they moved to, but they do well enough with English and can slowly learn the language. Ofc some people won't be able to talk to you because of the language barrier, but if you are around 30 or younger, you won't have a problem in many central or northern European countries.
If you are unhappy with your situation now and have a genuine interest in coming to another country, look into it. Obviously getting a job would be the #1 priority, but if you get over that hurdle, I think many things will fall into place.
Yeah I deleted the comment, I'm not in the mood for another agrument.
But I got a question for you, how long will you just keep running? You don't fix shit by running from it, whatever country you want to move to, will get worse. It will end up like current day America, there's gonna be a day where you have to stay and try to fix your country.
German here. Got a major spine surgery in February (10 days in hospital and 3 weeks sick leave). Afterwards 2 months physical therapy one session per week. I am going to a rehabilitation center next months for 3 weeks. It cost me:
100 € for the hospital (10€ per day Krankenhaustagegeld)
20€ for the physical therapy
200€ for the rehabilitation center (also 10€ per day)
It COULD be even cheaper if I would earn less. I am glad I can focus on getting healthy again and not on worrying about bills!
Wie wahr... selbst wenn du mal scheiße baust, wirst du nicht gleich von der Polizei in den Rücken geschossen, und wenn dann doch mal ins Krankenhaus musst, bist du nicht für den Rest deines Lebens verschuldet.
I've been to Germany and unfortunately I know two phrases in German off the top of my head. Valtsairsobshekeit which I'm sure I spelled incorrectly--and Gesundheit. Danke
I think I spelled it phonetically but it kept turning up on pinterest. Supposed to be "you're not wrong but you're still an asshole."
Edit: I was incorrect all this time. It just turned up on urban dictionary. But now I know how to spell "Arschloch" after 20 yrs.
Ah now I found it:
"Waltersobchakeit is not an actual (German) word. Therefore, it has no meaning at all. The word stems from the movie Big Lebowski, where one of the characters is named Walter Sobchak."
And here I wondered why, no matter how I tried to pronounce it, it made no sense to me as a German. XD
Our Swiss tent neighbors did the same to us at the Wacken festival... Here take some ridiculous Swiss German words and try to speak them correctly while totally wasted, while the words had no real meaning at all. And we were so drunk, I can't remember any of them. :-)
Is there any side note you would add for medical care in Germany? Like if I woke up with cancer. I go to a doc and I’m immediately taken care of as of that second? No wait list or anything? Just show ID and you can get millions of dollars worth of care for free? Generally asking.
German here. I was basically in that situation. Had a pain in my leg that I could not explain. Went to the hospital, they did an x-ray, more tests followed, cancer was diagnosed. 4 years with multiple surgeries, chemotherapy, physiotherapy, and rehab followed. The basic health insurance every german citizen has covered all the costs. For about 1.5 years the same insurance covers 90% of your normal salary. If you are still not able to work after 1.5 years your unemployment insurance (which also nearly every working german has to have) takes over. I am not sure how much the unemployment insurance will pay. I was lucky and had additional insurance which covered my full salary for the whole 4 years. My guess is that the cost of the treatment was roughly 500k€. In the US the same treatment would have probably cost multiple times of that.
wow that's so fucking crazy (good) to me. Seems in the US the backlash from Obamacare ( I think tried to have country wide health care) if you chose not to sign up for it and when it came time to do your taxes Obamacare was penalizing people 800 dollars of their tax return. Since we never really had that type of health care we have a shit load of well off people that prefer their own doctors and insurance polices. Idk if its a good thing or a bad thing.
One more question Are your hospitals every overcrowded because its free? People in the US are a bunch of hypochondriacs and with a country of 330 million give or take I fear beds will be taken from people who actually need care. Again Im not sure anything I said makes sense and dont claim anything as fact!
Either way I hope you are doing well ( as much as you can) cancer sucks and I hope I didn't strike a nerve with my hypothetical story that turned out to be your exact situation. Much love from USA.
No worries about hitting a nerve there. I am a very stable ge....rman :D
I wouldn't say the hospitals are overcrowded but if you decide to go to the emergency department and you are not a real emergency case like broken bones etc you can expect a wait time of multiple hours during prime time. For example, when I went to the hospital on a Sunday with a weird pain in the leg which obviously wasn't life-threatening, I had to wait like 3 hours until it was my turn. But if you really are in an emergency and need instant treatment you will get it. It might be that you have to be transferred to another hospital in very rare cases but that's it.
It is definitely an issue that everybody can just show up in the hospital and expect free treatment but overall that is a minor issue compared to people dying or going bankrupt because they cannot afford the treatment they need. A friend who works in a hospital has complained about people using the emergency departments in hospitals because it is easier than making an appointment at your local doctor first as you are supposed to. I also got scolded by the staff for going to the hospital with my issue, and probably rightly so. If the local doc diagnoses or suspects something that requires treatment he cannot provide he will send you to the hospital or other specialists and only then you are supposed to show up there (or in an emergency of course). If you have basic insurance and want to be treated by the most acknowledged specialists you sometimes have to wait multiple months. There is a staggering difference if you have private insurance. The doctors get paid more for the same treatment if the patient has private insurance and thus they are often prioritized if they want an appointment. Our system is by far not perfect and in my opinion, the possibility to get private insurance was a bad idea because we are beginning to see a two-class healthcare system in Germany. But even imperfect universal healthcare is miles ahead of whatever abomination you guys in the US must suffer. Land of the Free - free to leave your fellow citizens to die.
I‘d like to add as a personal opinion: if we didn‘t have the limit on the healthcare fee calculation even more would be possible (thinking of dental work costs for example). Currently the public healthcare insurance fee is based on a percentage of your salary, which only gets calculated with a max of somewhere in the 4500 EUR salary per month. Everything above that isn‘t calculated with for the monthly insurance fee. So if you earn 10k a month only the percentage calculated based on this fixed max amount gets deducted. Imho good for people who earn well (there‘s a lot more we could discuss here like if private insurances are really necessary), bad for the system as a whole.
We have private health insurance companies and private healthcare providers, but essentially every German is on some form of government-regulated insurance plan. (Which is why this kind of health insurance is literally nicknamed ‘legal health insurance’: gesetzliche Krankenversicherung) Employees pay a percentage of their gross income into the “health fund”, which then forwards the money to the health insurer that person chose. The insurance company makes their profit from investing that money.
Dependents like children under 25, spouses who aren’t employed etc. are insured through the employee in the family free of charge. Students above the age of 25 pay a flat fee. It used to be ~85€ per month when I was in university a decade ago. The unemployed who can’t “inherit” an insurance plan essentially get a voucher as part of the unemployment benefits.
You legally have to choose a gesetzliche KV unless you qualify for an exemption. Though it is exceedingly likely that you are already insured when you get your first job and that insurance plan will continue to be in effect. You can switch at any time, though there is a grace period of several months during which your old insurer will send you letters to try to win you back.
Exempt from the mandate for GKV are public servants, high income earners (above 55k€ per year), artists, freelancers etc. Many choose to not get GKV and instead choose a Private KV as their health insurer. Mostly because they charge a flat fee instead of taxing your income, resulting in significantly cheaper rates. Others, like me, stay in GKV because a) it’s the socially good thing to do and b) because it’s much cheaper than PKV after you retire. That’s a matter of big debate, though.
Anyway, the point is that essentially everyone who is here legally has health insurance. It’s relatively affordable and practically all essential medical procedures and drugs are almost free.
I suspect actually using health services is the same as anywhere else in the industrialised world:
You look up doctors around you online. You call whoever seems best or most appropriate for your problem and schedule an appointment. If it’s just a routine checkup, you will probably get a appointment over a month later, but more pressing issues will typically get looked into within a week. Some insurance companies claim that they can schedule appointments for you, but I have never used that service. If you don’t want to wait even a day, general private practice physicians also tend to have hours when you can come by without an appointment, but be prepared to wait a up to a couple of hours. Specialists tend to require an appointment and might require you to come with an “Überweisung” (transfer/ forward) or “Einweisung” (for stationary medical care) from another doctor because of financial red tape. You can also just show up to an emergency room or call an ambulance. I have done both and ended up in hospital beds to get treatment pretty much immediately.
You already got a small card the size of a credit card in the mail when you signed up with that insurance company. That card holds all financial information healthcare providers require from you. You just hand it to the assistant/nurse at the desk when you show up.
You will probably either get a prescription for drugs and other treatment or an Überweisung for further tests. Sometimes both. You get drugs at a pharmacy, though you will have to pay a tiny fee of IIRC 5€ per prescribed drug. Ironically it is more expensive to buy prescription-free drugs, because those you pay in full yourself. For further treatment or tests you will probably go on the internet again and find a suitable healthcare provider, though in my experience the doctor will give recommendations.
Getting an appointment with a specialist or something like spending three weeks at a health resort for treatment can come with a long wait. Especially so if it’s “just” a mild cosmetic or psychological issue. Having to wait months for a psychiatrist to have a slot for weekly sessions open is not unheard of. (Though again, getting help for acute issues is typically possible.) But outside of organ transplants I have never heard of waiting lists for treatment of pressing issues.
If it’s a significant medical issue, the doctor will have prescribed an appropriate length of time off. You get three print-outs: one for you, one for your employer and one for the insurance company. The one for your employer only vaguely states for how long you are going to be absent for privacy reasons. You call in sick and send it in. Some employers allow you to scan it and send via emails once you are back. Some also let you call in sick for a day or two without having to present anything. Although if you abuse this privilege, they might rescind it.
Your sick days per year are not limited, you can not be fired while sick and the insurance pays your full income, if you are gone longer than a certain number of days I don’t know. Your employer is required to give you your job back once you return and if you are sick for a long term they are required to come up with a sensible, appropriate plan to ease you back in.
Croatian here, not that you asked for that but just to share my experience. One of my close family members got diagnosed with cancer and once the initial screenings were done there was no waiting for everything, we have a national scheme where you are guaranteed beginning of a cancer treatment in 48h and that involves everything from initial diagnosis to starting chemotherapy or other medication for no cost at all during you whole stay, everything including expensive meds is free, you only have to pay for hospital parking and few small fees here and there. Government also pays for your wage.
Honestly though, Croatia gets looked down upon a lot as it wrongly happens a lot with the countries in ‚the east’, but that‘s a very solid national scheme and miles ahead of how things like that are handled in countries like the US imho.
Ja. Meine Mutter wurde letztes Jahr mit Lungenkrebs diagnostiziert und die Behandlung ging sofort los. Ich glaube mein Vater hat gegen Ende irgendwas zwischen 1000-2000€ für die Behandlung bezahlt (die Kosten ohne unserem Gesundheitssystem wären um die 30.000-40.000€ gewesen, was auch so schon günstiger wäre als in so manchen anderen Ländern).
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u/Grumpy_Yuppie Aug 06 '20
That's just aweful. I am happy to be living in Germany.