Just from the top of my head I remember two scenes from two different movies - the one from Hangover II where Phil gets shot and gets treatment in Bangkok hospital ("10 dollars - how is this even possibile") and from some other comedy where one of main villans, literal rocket scientist, complains that he had no other choice because he have four children with braces and how he could possibly afford that.
This belief that you can't get healthcare seems to be a major issue, to me. People simply don't get healthcare because they believe, wrongly, that they will have to pay for it, or that they can't get it despite socialized systems being in place.
You have to file, just like you do in every other country. But in the UK, for example, there's no smear campaign telling all the poor, wrongly, that they can't get care so they shouldn't even bother filling out the form.
If you, or someone you know, believes they can't get care because they are too poor, please refer them to healthcare.gov and help them through the enrollment. They may need to file their taxes first, and you may need to help them with that too. Under $50k, you will pay nothing for coverage.
Yes, the self employed in the US pay premium prices for health. They also get premium tax breaks so I think they should stop complaining about it.
For perspective, someone making around $200k-$250 would pay about $1200/mo. for a 3 person household with a $6000 deductible and an HSA (paid by employer) that covers that deductible, so basically zero cost outside of that.
That's just $4800/yr/person.
Compared with a fully socialized healthcare country with highly successful application, the cost in healthcare taxes would be more for someone in that earnings category.
I've run the same figures for taxes in several EU and non-EU countries and they match.
There's just not that much difference, as far as I can tell, except that the care is better from the perspective of many friends living abroad and spending far more than I do because they are paying the health tax and ALSO paying extra for private care.
It's a real issue that people think they can't get care. Please help them, rather than perpetuate the problem.
