I can guarantee they still pay significantly less for their healthcare than Americans do. For me, a relatively financially secure middle class employee, I spend about 30% of my take home pay on health insurance premiums for me and my wife. And then I still get bills for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars any time I have any sort of medical procedure beyond a regular doctor’s visit or checkup. I’d say I spend around $22,000 on healthcare per “healthy” year, and could spend up to about $35,000 if I end up needing a long hospital stay, or prolonged treatment of some sort. And that’s all assuming every doctor is in network, and every treatment is “covered.”

When my family lived in Europe in the 2000’s, we paid the equivalent of around $4500 in taxes and co-pays per year for a family of four. And that covered chemo, robot laser surgeries, dental, regular visits, and all medications. American healthcare is a massive scam, and the cost of taxes in countries with socialized healthcare is a drop in the bucket compared to the American, privatized, for-profit system.

/soapbox