"Out of pocket" means what you pay versus what your insurance company pays. By law, the most that can be per year is $18,200 per family in 2023 [1], though it i

"Out of pocket" means what you pay versus what your insurance company pays. By law, the most that can be per year is $18,200 per family in 2023 [1], though it is much lower for almost any employer health plan. My family is very healthy and so I get the crappiest coverage my employer offers for nearly free for my family (because the employer gets a tax break) and mine is $10,000. The limit resets on January 1 and insurance companies can try to weasel on what's covered, though they rarely win those appeals, but on the flip side, most medical expenses are negotiable in that kind of case. The bottom line is that our healthcare system serves several percent of the population (but not the very bottom tier, who have medicaid and public hospitals) incredibly badly and for everyone else is normally just annoying. It's possible for an American software developer with reasonable spending habits to have a medical emergency turn into a financial catastrophe, but it would be really hard. A lot of Europeans seem to believe that their healthcare costs make up for the salary differential. This is not a reasonable belief even before factoring in taxes and cost of living in most cities. [1] https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/out-of-pocket-maximum-limit/ https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/out-of-pocket-maximum-li...