You must have a bank account in Croatia, for example, to get various things done with Croatian government bureaucracy. Generally speaking, some German and Austrian banks will do business with American citizens. It is important to be gracious and patient, as FATCA is a huge pain.
There is a Foreign Earned Income Exclusion on US income tax returns. For 2020 it is $107,600, and for 2021 it is $108,700. Obviously investments are another story. But, many Americans abroad do not have to pay US income taxes, but they do have to file them.
In the US, with good health insurance benefits through a large employer, my out-of-pocket costs were around $25,000-$30,000/year. Even if I paid US taxes on top of the European taxes, it is not the worst thing in the world: I never have to worry about being cared for here, and the doctors have a lot more time for me here, and can follow my case better.
I also require an orphan drug to stay alive, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in the US, typically covered by insurance, but not guaranteed. So, I could always end up with an obscene bill in the mail. (It has happened before and I have been lucky to get off the hook.)
I work outside of tech for a Fortune 500 and my premiums are $1200 per year with a max OOP of $2500.
Unless a plan is grandfathered in, the ACA limits OOP to ~$9k per year.
https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/out-of-pocket-maximum-li...
Yearly premium liability: ($950/month)*(12 months/year)= $11,400/year
Out-of-Pocket liability: $9,000/year
So, the minimum healthcare liability that I theoretically have in the US (which is never the case for me), every year, is:
Yearly Premium Liability + Out-of-Pocket Liability = $20,400/year
However, I also have other uncovered medical expenses, encountered thanks to insurance issues. I literally generated well over 100 claims per year on medical insurance alone, so it was not like I never had uncovered expenses. Obviously you fight it, and you never give up, because that is what the providers expect you to do. However, there are a lot of situations that are just unwinnable.
In reality, my yearly healthcare liability in the US was closer to $30,000/year.
I had the opposite experience. I found US health insurance reasonable and it covered more than in my original country (which didn’t cover the latest cancer treatments and had long waiting lines). If I got seriously ill and had good insurance I’d return to the US for care than stay where I am today in a developed country.
A lot of banks just straight out refuse it. Especially the ones with the lowest fees.
I think it is for any income above 100k/year (the amount could have changed), if you are in that bracket is a nice problem to have
> Also many international banks cringe at opening accounts with “us persons”
I live in a country with many American expats, none of them have had any problem whatsoever to access to banking services, including opening accounts
It depends on the bank. Any bank doing business internationally is usually fine because they probably already have a robust compliance mechanism in place, but a lot of local banks will just straight-up say no because they don't want to be subjected to FBAR / FATCA.
If you’re a one-off for them they may just say “no”.