‘Forced our hand’: Sad reason ‘solid’ American dad moved to Melbourne

A self-described “solid American” has revealed the sad reason he moved his young family to Australia, after a disturbing event “forced our hand”.

A self-described “solid American” has revealed the sad reason he moved his young family to Australia, after a disturbing event “forced our hand”.

Andrew Polino, 37, was living with his Australian wife Nikki in Tampa, Florida last year when she became pregnant.

The digital content producer, who worked for a local news outlet, had health insurance through his job “so we thought we were golden”.

“We weren’t,” Polino wrote in a viral thread on X this week.

“We still faced high copays for OB (obstetrician) visits and meds for my wife, who had a brutal pregnancy. But that wasn’t what drove us out. What drove us out were the OBs. They deemed my wife high-risk and an insurance liability, discharging her on the first pretext they could find and effectively black-listing her from all OBs in-network.”

Another group then transferred her, “claiming they didn’t have the right specialist”.

“They then set her up for a transfer to one of a handful of hospitals, including one they said could probably only do a ‘consultation’ in January … when my wife would be eight months pregnant,” Polino said.

“Most maternal health specialists wouldn’t take her on because she was ‘too far along’.”

Andrew Polino, 37, with his Australian wife Nikki. Picture: Instagram

By January, the couple was “near eight months, no delivery team, no word from the hospitals, no OB, no other resources”.

“My wife, afraid for her safety, flew to Melbourne and found a full medical team to help her deliver safely,” he said.

“I followed as quickly as possible and arrived with only a week to spare. After our baby was born (hospital bill: $50), we decided to stay in Melbourne. We had a home, resources for parents, healthcare, and a high quality of life.”

In Florida, by comparison, “we faced low pay, high medical bills, inflation, gun violence, and other struggles for survival”.

“The choice wasn’t hard,” he concluded.

After 37 years as a solid American, I've left the U.S. My wife and I have been living in her home town of Melbourne, Australia since January, shortly before our baby was born.

We'd always talked about doing it someday, but something happened last year that forced our hand. 1/ 🧵

— Andrew Polino (@AndrewPolino) May 20, 2024

“Now we’re happy. We’re a family, and we feel like we have a future. My privilege isn’t lost on me. I’m still voting as an American and advocating for those less fortunate. No one should be left feeling trapped by their own medical providers. Period.”

Polino added that his daughter, a dual citizen, would “grow up learning the importance of voting in elections and about her roots in both countries”.

“It’s up to us to pave the way for a better future in both places!” he said.

The couple’s experience, which echoes other horror stories about the dysfunctional US healthcare system, struck a chord with many online.

Polino’s thread has been viewed nearly seven million times in two days.

Their daughter will ‘grow up learning the importance of voting in elections’. Picture: X

“OMG, as someone who lives in Melbourne I had no idea things in the US health system were so bad that they would actually refuse treatment to someone who needed it. That’s insane,” one person wrote.

Another added, “There is no doubt that the US medical system is broken. I found that out when I got sick in Thailand and was shocked at how easy it was to get excellent care for barely any money. I’m glad your story had a good outcome.”

One woman said she “tensed up reading your post” because “every sentence reminded me of my experience with my first daughter, who was born at 26 weeks” weighing only 600 grams because she developed HELLP (Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes and Low Platelets) syndrome.

“I had pre-existing hypertension and was 39 years old, immediately labelled a high-risk geriatric mother, and I couldn’t find an OB to take me as a patient,” she said.

“Fortunately, my daughter is doing amazingly well considering her 120-day NICU stay, and I’m also thankful to be here today after nearly dying the day she was born. Prenatal and maternal care isn’t easy in the US. I hope to see this change one day. Blessings on your family and new residence.”

However one woman explained that “a lot of the nonsense with obstetrics has to do with the obscene cost of malpractice insurance for that field”.

“They have to be so careful to avoid being penalised financially,” she said. “With that said, it’s awful that women have to fight for care. Glad you’re all OK.”

More Americans come to Australia than vice versa. Picture: Ian Currie/NCA NewsWire

In another thread on X, Polino outlined some of the other “utter insanity” that contributed to their decision to leave Florida, including constant shootings like the “wild west”, “anti-vax BS” from the Governor Ron DeSantis, racism and “anti-trans laws”.

“Oddly enough, none of these things made us leave,” he said.

“It was the danger Florida’s for-profit healthcare left my wife in that did it. But now that I’m gone, it really hits me just how much I came to treat all the craziness as normal. It doesn’t have to be this way, does it?”

There were 114,260 US-born residents in Australia as of June 30, 2023, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Demographer Simon Kuestenmacher has previously observed the interesting piece of trivia that the US records net positive migration from the entire world except Australia.

“Does that mean US Americans think Australia is the only more desirable destination on the planet?” he wrote in a viral 2022 tweet.

Fellow demographer Mark McCrindle said it was “remarkable tribute to brand Australia”.

“That there are more citizens from countries of lower wealth in the US than Americans in those countries is expected,” he said.

“But for Australians, such is the lifestyle of our nation, balanced with a strong economy and work opportunities, even the pull of living in the world’s largest economy is not enough to tip the balance.”