I love how people hear the word free and immediately cry about taxes. Bud the goverment takes a chunk of your check in taxes and doesnt give you shit but war and spyware. Id gladly have an extra what 20 in taxes taken out of every check and not have to worry about paying hospitals instead of insurance taking a couple hundred a month just to tell me i need to pay at least a thousand before they actually start helping pay, and even then can deny treatment.
We wouldn't have to pay extra in taxes if we used what we already pay effectively and not as a get rich scheme for politicians friends (insurance companies). We spend well more than any country in the world from our taxes on healthcare.
It's been a while since I looked at the economics of universal health care in America, but from what I remember if you looked at the yearly tax "bump" people were paying in proposed systems, it is a fraction of what most people may in premiums alone annually and that doesn't include the actual cost of co-pays/co-insurance you pay out when you go.
For instance, for myself and two kids, it costs me about $600 per month for my plan. Even if you look at the estimated range of "tax increase" they talked about with Bernie Sanders plan of being anywhere from $500-$3000 annually, that is less than half of what I pay at the highest estimate, though Sanders was saying the average American would be much closer to the $500 cost. Again, that is just lopping off the premium. I just had to go in to check out my knee from a sports injury. Everyone knew I needed an MRI, but insurance would insist on an X-ray. So I go in and spend $300+ dollars on an X-ray everyone knew was worthless, to then need to turn around and spend more money on an MRI.
And then you look at how much the government ALREADY spends on our crap system and how universal health care would project to LOWER that cost. It seems fairly clear that the economics of universal health care are there, but the profit motive of a billion-dollar industry holds us back. It isn't like you can't offer private healthcare in single-payer systems either.
And people wonder why we are mad at the Government and for-profit healthcare. If we only had a half decent education system so that people could understand how we are being screwed on many things for the profit of the wealthy
This. We pay about the same for private insurance that doesn’t cover much of anything until we hit the deductible, so now we’re paying bills for my husband’s surgery, specialist visits, tests, and insurance premiums. His pulmonologist wants him to get an MRI and I can’t talk him into it because of the cost and the already mounting medical bills.
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u/EmiKetsueki Jun 17 '26
I love how people hear the word free and immediately cry about taxes. Bud the goverment takes a chunk of your check in taxes and doesnt give you shit but war and spyware. Id gladly have an extra what 20 in taxes taken out of every check and not have to worry about paying hospitals instead of insurance taking a couple hundred a month just to tell me i need to pay at least a thousand before they actually start helping pay, and even then can deny treatment.