As promised, I’m following up my post: the Things I Love About America, you can read that post here with a post about what I dislike about America. Forewarning: we’ve not been here long, and I’m still discovering things about the country every day, and so this list will likely evolve in time.
Healthcare
Okay, so I’m gonna kick this off with my biggest dislike: healthcare. To be quite frank, it sucks. I’m used to a brilliant, free system, and I’m now paying crazy amounts of money for care that, in my opinion, isn’t much better. Luckily we’re in a good financial position, but for many it must be such a struggle when it comes to healthcare.
Not only is there a monthly fee (around $450 for a family), you have co-pays (set amounts you still have to pay) on just about everything, and the bulk of the insurance doesn’t even kick in until you’ve spent thousands of dollars per person.
It’s definitely a shock to the system having to pay for healthcare. It would never not see a doctor if I thought it was necessary, but I do worry that my definition of “necessary” could become broader due to my reluctance to pay.
Lack of walk-ability
America is huge, and they definitely take advantage of the space available. The downside to this being a lot of things aren’t within walking distance from home. We were spoiled with our last couple of houses because it was a short walk to pretty much everything. I have lived in houses in England where you can’t walk to the shops, but it’s usually only a few minutes in the car to get there. But America is a completely different ball-game, and you can easily live a good 20 minute drive from the local shop, and that might not even be a large supermarket. In addition to that, you often can’t walk between all the shops at a retail park because the shops are so big, and the parking lots are huge! Which wouldn’t bother me if I were on my own but it can be a pain with the girls when I have to get them in and out of the car.
High cost of living
This one is rather circumstantial, but the cost of living here is high. We live between two major cities, so our rent and living costs are higher than average. However, some everyday expenses are high. For example, groceries that cost us £250 a month in the UK cost more than $600 here. Sports activities, kids clubs, and such are more expensive here too. I don’t doubt that the cost of living in some parts of rural America is considerably cheaper, but we haven’t seen it.
Guns
Personally I don’t like guns, and I find it a little unsettling how easy it is to acquire them here. Thankfully we’ve not had any interactions with them, and I hope it stays that way.
Americans dislike of the country
If you’ve read my blog post about what I love about America, this point completely contradicts what I say about Americans being patriotic. But I’m standing by it, because for every American you find that loves their country, you’ll find another that can’t stand it. We all have gripes about where we live/come from, and every now and then we’ll have a moan. But us English-folk tend to keep our gripes about the country to ourselves (in my experience anyway). Whereas it’s quite the opposite here. Don’t get me wrong they’re more than entitled to their opinion, and to share it too, but to be on the receiving side of the complaints is a bit of a bummer when you’re looking at a country with new, and optimistic eyes.
DMV/MVA (US-equivalent of the DVLA)
I’ve spoken about this in one of my previous posts, but every interaction I’ve had with them has been infinitely frustrating. All of their processes and procedures feel so dated in comparison to the English ones. I’ve never raved about the English system before, but being able to complete and submit forms online, or at the worst print the form and post it, sure beats the hours of queuing you face here.
No matter where you live there will always be things you don’t like, I have my complaints about England too! Despite the few things I dislike about America, I’m thoroughly enjoying life here in the USA!
What do you dislike about where you live?
Lizzie xo