Like GP said, the Internet is very misleading about this. Healthcare is OK for the middle class and that’s why there isn’t enough pressure to change it.
After that, you have the "out-of-pocket" maximum. You pay 20% of costs until you hit the "out-of-pocket" maximum, which is typically thousands of dollars per year.
Beyond that, there are actually two different deductibles and two different out-of-pocket maximums. One for in-network services, and one for out-of-network services. You can go to an in-network facility and see out-of-network providers without notice.
And even beyond that, while it has been curbed with some recent legislation, if your insurance provider decides to pay less than the provider believes they are owed, the provider can bill you independently for the remainder.
So NO, it is definitely not $2k per year for a good health insurance plan in the US. FAR from it.
How much is this monthly premium? We are talking about 50USD, 500USD, more?
You say out of pocket is in thousands per year - so I assume <10k?
I wonder what is upper bound of yearly cost for having same or better level of healthcare as in Europe.
If that's like 15k a year, than I would assume, at least for SWEs, it still makes a lot of sense to go to US - pay difference is huge. I would not be surprised that even you you would count 50k a year for medical it could still make a lot of sense to move to US if you are good - I don't hear that much about 300k, 400k or more TC per year in EU
The premiums will also vary, but probably a few hundred for most employer plans.
If you don’t know how much monthly insurance premiums are, you probably shouldn’t be arguing about the topic?
Because all of those things they mentioned are heavily dependent on the premium which they decided to omit in those hypothetical calculations
Depends on who you are, where you are, who you're employed by, the ability of your employer to negotiate a deal, the willingness of your employer to provide "Cadillac" coverage to their workforce, and how much secret data broker information the insurance cartel has specifically on you and your prior medical conditions.
The thing about healthcare in America is that everything is unregulated and completely opaque. Prices are impossible to find at time of use, impossible to negotiate, and for most customers facing a medical catastrophe they will be both "unconscious" and "out of network". If you have a serious out of network emergency that your dodgy insurance doesn't cover you could be up for anywhere between $50k and several million dollars and filing for bankruptcy the day you leave the hospital.
If I had a very serious car crash with a helicopter evacuation and a lengthy hospital stay due to a spinal injury, a million might not cover it.
I would say "heavily regulated and completely opaque".
I have had to redo my teeth due to a medical issue. My insurance paid for the medical issue. My teeth though? This year alone I've spent 13k out of pocket after maxing out my dental insurance. Next year will be the same. and the year after. And I'm paying for insurance while paying all of this.