Yes, in fact healthcare in America used to be affordable.

The two big price jumps were in 1990-2000, and then 2000-now. The last one is what finally broke the private system in the US in terms of affordability.

It's easy to look up the facts and demonstrate where the costs began to soar:

http://i.imgur.com/OXg7Nx7.png

http://i.imgur.com/R6MbaD9.png

Healthcare costs per capita have gone up four fold since 1990 roughly. Real household income in the US was about $47,000 in 1990. Today it's around $58,000 or so. That means people in 1990, with just around 20% less income, were spending 75% less on healthcare. Yes, it was affordable back then.

You can easily prove this another way: look up medical caused bankruptcies, and look at how they surge from the 1990s forward.

> Vacation time is also the lowest (2 weeks) compared to Europe which on average has 4 weeks of vacation time.

As far as I know, no law requires employers to give their workers paid vacation days in the US. Although the most common vacation time is 2 weeks, there are some jobs with no paid vacation time at all. Also, from what I've heard, what the article mentions about people feeling guilty for taking vacation time is very real in American's work culture.

Here in the Netherlands, in contrast, the minimum paid vacation time by law is four times the number of working days in a week. For full time that's 20 days. Typically, companies provide a bit more than that.

> Vacation time is also the lowest (2 weeks) compared to Europe which on average has 4 weeks of vacation time.

The EU mandates a minimum of 4 weeks, so 4 weeks could hardly be the average.

Yep, in Sweden the minimum is five weeks with a lot of companies offering six. That is not counting "other" days off, e.g. "squeeze days" (a day between a public holiday and a weekend) that a lot of companies have. All of it 100.8% payed for and completely guilt-free!

I am not sure in which EU countries you get less? It is a question.

> I am not sure in which EU countries you get less?

Normally none, as I said 4 weeks is the minimum mandated by the EU. The only way an EU country would have less is if it recently integrated the union and has yet to transcribe 2003/88/EC ("Working Time Directive") into local law.

For a lot of people healthcare would be a huge expense... I'm actually pretty happy about "Obamacare" even though I don't agree with the methods... I actually have better healthcare out of pocket today, for less money per month than my last job offered. I was surprised, as I'm big, and diabetic so the last time I looked at out of pocket it was a couple thousand a month. That said, I think there could have been better ways to do it, and the number of exceptions was too vast imho.

As for vacation, I'm feeling it... I've spent most of my career doing contract/hourly work, and for several years the only time I really had off was both unpaid and between jobs with half the time spent interviewing. The past three years I've forced myself to take a couple weeks off over the year, and it's a world of difference... Still unpaid, but worth it.

If I come across a company that gives me the freedom as an employee that I've had as a contractor, I'd be happy to be there. I've done far better in positions where I'm able to get work done, instead of minutia and meetings all the time. Where quality of output is worth more than the number of Jira tickets closed. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the majority of my work experience.

Who knows how things will work out in the end... at least it's not like the first .com bust.