My not American wage has me with less and less buying power with each passing year.
Do you loose all your savings and fall into years of debt if you have to spend a week in the hospital?
Its relevant. Having reduced buying power yet not risking loosing all of your buying power for the rest of your life is generally preferred.
Most people don’t realize how terrible it is in the US. Lots of migrants to the US searching for better pay, but they don’t realize how miserable life in the US is because most of their paycheck gets eaten by rent, transportation to work, healthcare, etc. And as soon as they manage to save anything, it all gets wiped out by a single hospital visit.
I don’t think Hollywood (how most people lean about the US) does a good job conveying how most people live in poverty in the US, how miserable they are, and how many of us kill ourselves because of the conditions.