We have a public/private mix in Ireland. It's not awful, it's not great. If you are below an admittedly very low income, prescriptions are paid for by the state except for a prescription charge of €1.50. If you're above that income your household doesn't pay for any medication after spending something like €135 in one month. There's also free medication for people with chronic conditions like diabetes. GP care is free for those over 70 and under 6 and I think that's going up to Maternity care is free. I've had colonoscopies and colposcopies, and whatever that procedure is called for removing dodgy cervical cells (Letz??) free. I've always had health insurance but I've never had to use it. That being said, a woman died here because she was on a waiting list for a colonoscopy. Susie Long was her name and there is now a public ward named after her in what was her local hospital. It was a huge scandal at the time. It can cost anywhere from €50 to €60 for a GP visit. We're working on introducing an NHS type system where health care is free for everyone.
I suppose tax might be higher than some states in the US but then the public school system here is decent enough, people usually don't pay for private unless it's for a repeat of the final year because they failed to get into their university course of choice and need a what we call a grind school, or they pay for private as a social optics thing. University fees are relatively low and there's a grant available to people under a certain income that covers fees and some living maintenance. This continues on for post graduate studies taken immediately after a basic degree. People who are unemployed or disabled can apply for an education allowance to go to university or other qualifications and their fees are paid. Oh there are two years of preschool free too and each child under 18 gets an allowance of €140 a month from the state.
There's free basic dental care for kids as far as I know. And a certain amount for adults on the same admittedly low income as mentioned above. But it doesn't cost a fortune to pay for the dentist either for basic procedures, though implants and root canals are quite expensive.
If you lose your job or get sick you get about €200 a week, plus €140 if you have a dependent spouse, plus €30 or similar for any dependent children if you don't have any other income. It's means tested. And most of your rent can be paid provided you have an agreeable landlord and your rent is below a certain amount (this might not be easy to find), again this is means tested. I think there might be help with paying mortgage interest also. Oh you get that €200 a week for maternity leave too, for 6 months, if your employer doesn't pay your maternity leave. The money stops coming after some pretty long length of time if you have other income over a certain amount but if you don't, it doesn't.
The main issue here is housing. Houses are expensive, rent is expensive and there's very little security of tenure. Not much in the line of social housing or affordable housing though there is some. There are also state mortgages through each county. People can't afford to live where they work and have to commute, which is an added expense. Public transport is not great especially outside of Dublin, and it's expensive. I can get the train to Dublin and back for the same amount as the money for petrol but if DH and DS go with me it's much cheaper to take the car. Homelessness has become a huge problem. We have families living in hotels (paid for by the state), homeless people on the street, we've had people living in their cars. We've also had protests and marches about it. It isn't necessarily the case that people have lost their jobs or become unwell, it's the case that their tenancy comes to an end or they can't afford a rent increase and it's extremely difficult to find somewhere new to live. Some landlords do not want to get involved with state run schemes where some of the rent is paid by the state, and the state won't pay a high enough rate to keep up with the market (but they'll pay for hotels when the person/people become homeless). It's a mess.
Tax also gets spent on repaying the National Debt, a large chunk of which was borrowed to bail out the banks. But I think most countries have that.
I don't know how our tax rates compare to other countries but I don't think it's outrageous for what we don't have to pay out of the income that's left. I'm sure there are those that disagree. There is also a property tax introduced after the economic crash. And we pay for refuse and recycling collection and there's a yearly tax if you own a car, and a tax called VAT on goods and services of 20% roughly. It's not on unprocessed food and it's lower on some processed food. There's also tax on fuel so petrol and diesel are expensive.
Anyway I have family in the US and the DF of the family left Ireland in the 70s to earn more in the US and pay less tax (both graduates, different professions). He and my DF compared notes when they were both in their 50s. He was quite shocked that there wasn't much difference, and then he started listing all the things my DF didn't have to pay for. Quite the lesson for late teen me.
Oh there's a pandemic payment of €350 a week for anyone whose job was shut down due to Covid. It did get changed to a sliding scale but I think it's back to the full €350. It's not actually a lot.
I suppose maybe higher earners in more secure jobs don't usually have to use the safety nets and might resent paying tax for those, but they're still likely to the health services and education services. And infrastructure and police. With health insurance you usually have to pay some yourself, my DM got a hip replaced and paid maybe €200. I think her health insurance is maybe €150 a month or so. Oh I forgot, you can claim tax back on any medical expenses you've had. Not much, maybe 20% or something.
We certainly don't think we're socialist.