Somehow since it wasn't mentioned in the article and me being European, I didn't even think about money as a relevant factor in the whole debacle, only about the time involved and needed to be with the family. I cannot imagine being in the same situation, and besides the horrible bad situation, having to worry about going bankrupt.
I am a EU based software dev, who is currently going through a cancer diagnosis & treatment of a partner (her second one in as many years).
Knowing that I have legally mandated sick leave with pay that covers me for some time has helped immensely while going through this ordeal. Not to mention all healthcare costs taken care of by the state (rather than via some weird golden handcuff scheme with my employer).
I simply can not imagine how vadly workers in the US are exposed when the unexpected happens (and it does, unexpectedly).
I thought the sick leave with pay would only apply to yourself, but not when your partner is sick? Though maybe there is some way to get leaves for yourself to take care of your partner I guess.
Also, even though most Europeans like to say what you said, the fact is still that, as a young healthy individual, the possibility of you even getting sick and needing to go to the doctor is actually incredibly slim. I haven’t visited the doctor except for the dentist in a few years but I’ve paid massive amounts into the German health care system, and I would still much prefer the American pay to the European social system. Maybe when you have a family the European way of life would have more appeal, but even then the system is somewhat collapsing as we speak, e.g. the horrible wait to get an appointment at NHS and also to some extent for the publicly insured Germans. I would still trust having resources at my own disposal instead of leaving my fate on a big, public system working the same for decades, which never happens in history.
