You are right, but it still makes sense to compare. I am from Bulgaria, the poorest country in the EU and I have been living in the US for a while with an ok sa

You are right, but it still makes sense to compare. I am from Bulgaria, the poorest country in the EU and I have been living in the US for a while with an ok salary for a scientist. I keep an average (for the country) health insurance in both countries. I feel more secure when I am in Bulgarian health jurisdiction price-wise and emergency-wise (simple things like knowing no one will try to trick me into paying for an ambulance ride, that there are no gotchas about which provider I need to see, that my insurance will never be prohibitively expensive to keep, etc).