[lbruder]

As a concrete example, German programmer here. 16% of my income go to taxes, another 12% go to mandatory insurances (excluding healthcare), and about 6% go to health insurance. So about a third of my income goes to mandatory stuff and taxes, but when my son broke his arm in the schoolyard, the treatment was completely free for us. Not sure how those numbers transfer to the US, though.

[igorzx31]

You would have paid less in taxes and it would have been free besides maybe a small ish deductible although you typically hit that through doctors appointments, drugs etc. The people who are screwed by the american system are the poor people make too much for medicaid. Everybody else generally likes their insurance.