Re:Ask HN: EU devs who moved to the States for work, has it ...
by kwhitefoot on Sunday November 28, 2021 @02:25PM
(#29372019)
> ower than double vs eg Switzerland or Norway.
Norway? Really. Health care costs here in Norway are capped at about 350 USD per year. If you pay more than that you get a card that exempts you from paying for things like GP visits, X-rays, MRIs, prescriptions, etc. Anything you did pay in excess of that you get refunded in the next tax settlement.
Re:Ask HN: EU devs who moved to the States for work, has it ...
by Turing_Machine on Sunday November 28, 2021 @03:53PM
(#29372906)
> Health care costs here in Norway are capped at about 350 USD per year.
You are confusing "individual out of pocket extra costs" with "total costs".
Norway's annual per capita expenditures on healthcare are about 71883 krone (about $7,000 USD). Only the United States and Switzerland are higher.
Source: https://www.ssb.no/en/nasjonalregnskap-og-konjunkturer/stati...
Re:Ask HN: EU devs who moved to the States for work, has it ...
by kwhitefoot on Monday November 29, 2021 @03:19AM
(#29377507)
Sorry, I was misled by the reference to out of pocket costs.
Re:Ask HN: EU devs who moved to the States for work, has it ...
by GekkePrutser on Sunday November 28, 2021 @04:44PM
(#29373350)
I know it's always paid by someone, but what I mean is that it's a big pressure on an employee to stay employed. In the EU we don't have as much pressure.
https://i.imgur.com/kZlS6pC.png
The overall US healthcare cost per capita is around double the median of affluent Europe typically; higher than double vs Britain, and lower than double vs eg Switzerland or Norway.
A lot of US healthcare is covered entirely or partially by employers. If you're a software developer making near or over six figures, it's very common that your healthcare costs are covered by your employer.
What you're talking about when you say "100" for Holland is subsidization by way of taxation for covering healthcare costs. When you say it's free in Spain, you're talking about subsidization by taxation. Around 1/4 of the US population also gets "free" healthcare (ie the higher income brackets are paying higher taxes to cover those people).
US healthcare is artificially very expensive, for numerous reasons. The employer provided system can also make unemployment quite risky, definitely. There is no free lunch however, someone is paying for the healthcare in France, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and so on. Whether it's $7k (Germany), $8k (Switzerland), or $11k (US) per person, it's a lot of money.