[mrep]

Healthcare is quite variable in the states. I for example have good insurance with my job so I have a max out of pocket spending limit of $2500 per year and I can also put $3500 per year of pre-income tax money into a health savings account (HSA) to use for healthcare spending so it's a total non-issue for me. The people that really get hosed are usually the ones that don't get it through a job such as if you are self-employed and those plans can run over 10000 a year and have really high deductibles.

As for the income tax wedge, between federal income taxes, social security, and medicare mine was about 27% on 221k income as a single person with no kids. It helps that I was in washington which has no state income tax and sales tax was about 10% there if you were curious.

edit: forgot state unemployment insurance which ranges from .2% to near 6% depending on the number of claims.