I’m assisting Americans leave through a nonprofit, and some other efforts other people are running. I think leaving for more affordable healthcare is one reason (savings can be anywhere between $10k-$35k/year, depending on number of dependents/family size), but there are a lot of other reasons as well to leave the country. That is the lens through which I see this issue.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47161587 (expat resources)

https://healthcareinfusion.org/ (for healthcare workers interested in Canada)

Work, Invest, Inherit: How Americans Can Actually Move to Europe - https://www.bloomberg.com/explainers/how-americans-can-move-... | https://archive.today/IYsA3 - January 2nd, 2026

As this piece mentions, Americans are leaving in record numbers, so it’s clearly possible, and it is happening. Broadly speaking, everyone who wants to get out, should have the opportunity to get out, because better lives can be lived in developed countries.

The European Union is becoming the world’s “quality of life” superpower - https://thinkeuropa.dk/en/notat/2025-10-the-european-union-i... - October 5th, 2025

Best Countries for Quality of Life - https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/best-countries-fo...

If you love it in the US, I would genuinely ask: “why?” The collapsing healthcare system? The endless mass shootings? The low quality work environment for workers? The constant unshakable economic precarity a majority of Americans face? The higher mortality rate and lower life expectancy than peer wealthy nations? Friends and family, certainly, I can understand, but I don’t understand the desire for the rest of the trimmings of the torment nexus. It's an economic human factory farm with good PR (to convince immigrants to come for "a better life" who are fuel for the low economic machine) and running on inertia from the Bretton Woods Agreement, no more, no less.

Trump administration to End Medicare Drug Plan Subsidy - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49089358 - July 2026

What Medicaid Cuts Mean For American Hospitals - https://www.npr.org/2026/04/07/nx-s1-5776610/what-medicaid-c... - April 7th, 2026

States are Beginning to Grapple with Federal Medicaid Cuts Impact on Rural Health Care - https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2026/03/31/states-are-beginning-t... - March 31st, 2026

U.S. health care is broken. Here are 3 ways it's getting worse - https://www.npr.org/2025/12/04/nx-s1-5629211/health-care-bro... - December 4th, 2025

https://www.massshootingtracker.site/

Wikipedia: Work–life balance in the United States - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work%E2%80%93life_balance_in_t...

Most Americans don't earn enough to afford basic costs of living, analysis finds - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44119317 - May 2025 (Report: https://www.lisep.org/mql)

Why Does the US Have Higher Death Rates than Other Wealthy Nations? - https://www.bu.edu/articles/2026/why-does-us-have-high-death... - May 8th, 2026

How does U.S. life expectancy compare to other countries? - https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-lif... - March 31st, 2026

International Comparison of Health Systems - https://www.kff.org/global-health-policy/health-policy-101-i... - October 8th, 2025

We used to be able to buy things in this country - https://dannykatch.substack.com/p/we-used-to-be-able-to-buy-... - Jul 21st, 2026

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49027462 (additional citations)

And so, observing these record numbers and the overwhelming data and observations around current state and trajectory of the United States and its critical systems humans rely on I would say: "Those are rookie numbers, you’ve gotta pump those numbers up."

(have prepared to leave the US for Europe, but haven’t left permanently yet)