As I understand it, in the US you also have to pay taxes. The difference is that you also have to pay through the nose for healthcare because it's not covered by your taxes.

It’s not a 1:1 comparison at all. E.g. income taxes i Norway and the USA are very similar, but total taxation is much higher than this in Norway due to a huge number of hidden taxes and fees.

Lots of proponets of our system avoid mentioning this when comparing, but it is dishonest and gives an incomplete picture. Total taxation in Norway is 50-75% of gross pay, for an average employee (of which only 50% are employed in the private sector).

By the same token, comparing overall taxation isn't a 1:1 match either when comparing against places where some of those are either a tax on employers or a directly purchased service.

A situation that happens in Europe too (though not to the point of bankruptcy). Then there are private insurers, sometimes mandatory. And there are situations where even public + private healthcare do not cover all expenses.

You might. You might not.

It's easy to look at your own tax receipt and think it's expensive but a) it's a boatload cheaper than it would be (cite: US healthcare atrocities) and b) not everybody earns enough to pay tax in these countries.

The people in group b still get treated. Equally. You're not left to suffer and die of readily treatable chronic conditions if you can't afford tax.