convert your USD salary to pounds and then do a UK tax calculator. compare the UK NHS tax to your yearly premiums and copays plus the employer contribution (should be on your W-2). when I did this, I found that I would pay about $2k more for the UK tax than my total healthcare costs in the US (including the portion paid by my employer). I'm sure lots of people on this forum make even more than I do.

there are definitely some good arguments for universal healthcare, but software devs should not delude themselves that they will do any better than break even in most cases.

edit: probably not true, I didn't investigate the UK tax system enough.

What is the UK NHS tax? There is no such tax, as far as I'm aware. You may be thinking of "National Insurance", but that is not specific to the NHS (and nor do all NHS funds come from National Insurance).

I'm sorry, it's actually called national insurance. am I making an incorrect assumption? I'm just going off this tax calculator: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/

Yep, incorrect. National Insurance is not an NHS tax.

sorry to be obtuse, did I just call it the wrong name or is it completely different? I'm american and I just assumed that NHS is the government org that handles healthcare and a mandatory contribution is pretty similar to a tax.

See my comment above. Not all of National Insurance goes to the NHS, and not all NHS funds come from National Insurance. There exists no special tax whose revenue is earmarked for the NHS. Thus, there is no easy way to see how much of your pay you are contributing to the NHS. Similarly, someone in the US can’t easily see how much of their pay goes to the US military or to the National Science Foundation.

edit: On an individual level, a lot will depend on your income, and how expensive your US health insurance is. Here is an informative post:

https://www.quora.com/If-you-make-100-000-in-UK-what-percent...

That works out to about $560/month for someone with a salary of $100,000. If you take into account employer contributions, that's still less than a lot of Americans are paying. If you're on a lower income, you're likely to be paying significantly less in the UK for much better coverage.

And I almost forgot - copays! The amount you're paying in taxes in the UK really is paying for virtually the full cost of your treatment when you're sick.

understood, ty for the explanation.