A lot of French, Italians, Spaniards, and Greeks have horrible quality of life as well. You can go out to some of the more remote parts and be shocked at the living standards in Europe. But they are still higher than the world average, and this also true for the U.S. as well. I think perhaps part of this is the lack of pop-culture coming out of Europe, since scenes from movies/tv showing terrible US ghettos and american countryside decaying towns are watched around the world, but Europe isn't producing entertainment showing czech Roma living in mountains of trash or bored teenagers wandering around French slums or toothless grandmothers in rotting Italian villages. But it's all still there.

You are right. The one big difference though is even a French person living in poverty will get the best cancer treatment the country can give as far as I know. In the U.S he will be left to die if he is not insured.