Planting one health-care system requires uprooting another.
Critics of American health care often ask why ours is the only highly developed country without a taxpayer-funded universal health-care system.
It is a question meant to answer itself: There is no good reason, so the U.S. should fall in line with European financing methods. That is the view of advocates of “Medicare For All,” a proposal backed by most House Democrats.
But the question deserves more than a rhetorical response. Health care is financed differently in the United States because it evolved differently. Private arrangements among hospitals, doctors, employers, and labor unions to finance medical insurance developed and matured over the course of decades, abetted by government policy that treats employer-sponsored health benefits differently than wages for tax purposes. That generally did not happen in Europe.
The American approach offers several advantages that often are overlooked.
First, instead of taxing workers and using the proceeds to finance their medical care, the U.S. government exempts employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) from taxation, a benefit estimated to have been worth $348 billion in 2016. That preferential tax treatment leveraged nearly $3 in private health-insurance spending for every $1 in forgone federal revenue (based on ESI insurance premiums totaling $991 billion that year) while insuring 173 million Americans. Supplanting it would require the government to fill a $643 billion hole through taxes, borrowing, and unspecified reductions in spending.
And the left is too stupid to understand that In Europe its different , particularly in Sweden, its pays to be rich in Sweden or inherit the money as you pay less in taxes.
Paying a minimum of 31% in Taxes, higher if your earn over 110K where its approximately 60%, there is no incentive to even work harder
That would never work in America, Lots of people look to Germany as an example, as how Universal health care can work, but they dont tell you that all of their insurance companies that provides insurance is non profit.
I wonder how they feel about the illegals and economic migrants pillaging their system?
The insurance companies in the US have a profit margin if 5% and some less.
Other countries can afford freebies healthcare as they have far less people, healthier people, they don’t have a military to speak of.
The Personal Income Tax Rate in Sweden stands at 61.85 percent. Personal Income Tax Rate in Sweden averaged 56.78 percent from 1995 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 61.85 percent in 2017. How many Americans are willing to pay 60% of their income for free heathcare.
We can afford anything people want as long as EVERYONE is willing to pay for it.
Want waiting lines like Canada??
Canadians pay 42% of income in tax
Are ALL Americans willing to pay 42% of all their income every year for free healthcare and waiting lines?
In its 29 th year, the America’s Health Rankings Annual Report also reveals bright spots, including the reduced rate of childhood poverty and an increased number of mental health providers and primary care physicians per 100,000 people. Key findings include:
Obesity Prevalence Reaches All-Time High; Premature Deaths Continue to Increase
The obesity rate exceeded 30 percent of the adult population for the first time in America’s Health Rankings history, up 5 percent in the past year (from 29.9 percent to 31.3 percent). Premature deaths increased 3 percent (from 7,214 to 7,432 years lost before age 75 per 100,000 people).
Fast food, junk food, fried chicken places etc.
The average American diet is horrible, especially those getting I dont if they give out food stamps or is it welfare cards, they dont eat healthy for the most part and then they blame the right, republicans, Trump, Bush,
Europeans have always been gov’t dependents going back to the earliest societies to form there.
Americans are born of people who rejected that dependency and came here to risk it all to be free of same.
Our system of medical care has done more to advance medical science and technology further and faster than the rest of the world combined over the last two centuries.
Why on earth would we want to give up all of that to be like the countries we rejected?
Unfortunately the more dependent people here are gov’t the more they demand more dependency from gov’t.
The smartest thing we could do would be to slowly phase medicare out completely and simply have medicaid to care for the truly indigent letting everyone else save as much as they can for retirement including our own healthcare in retirement.
All socialized medicine would guarantee is rationed care for all.
Need to include diabetes in there as being directly tied to obesity and we have among the highest rates of diabetes here in the US of any nation on earth because of our abuse of processed sugars and alcohol.
The total cost of diabetes in the US is around 175Bn annually with nearly 10% of the population being affected.
It’s not just the poor who are obese or over with as 60% of Americans fit into that category. It’s called LAZY, irresponsible as they fed the kiddies the same garbage producing overweight/obese children. Then they all scream, healthcare costs too much.
The comment isn’t directed at you but brings to light the entire fat country we live in. I get pissed when people in this country claim healthcare is to expensive as their waistlines expand yearly. People in the US refuse to get off the couch, reuse to eat sensibly, the government doesn’t;t help handing out food assistance no strings attached.
And then they glamour for medicare for all. I would love to see it as well as everyone paying for that little treat. 120 a month per person average. Family of four 480 a month for a crappy 80/20 plan.
Amazing how the Burnout Sanders and the idiot from NY scream for medicare for all and miss the part of the real cost.
Medicare for all would be disastrous. Not only would it allow government officials- who know nothing and have no business in someone else’s health care, let alone the whole country’s- to dictate who gets what kind of care, the overall quality of care would go down. The demand would be increased, and there would be no one to help subsidize the care that the overall population needs. Most likely, there are many people who are going to want to get lab work done, especially with diabetes on the rise (to test glucose and A1C levels), and it’ll put strain on everyone else’s taxes. Pair that with the lenient immigration policies the U.S. has, and we get people who need healthcare, but don’t pay into the system because they refuse to pay taxes and are not citizens, and thus, the overall quality of healthcare goes down, and governments showing preference to who gets what kind of care. This could possibly institute worse classicism, and reintroduce systematic discrimination, which is counter-intuitive to what liberals want.
I think liberals need to choose- do they want a universal healthcare system, or do they want open borders? Because you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. Even if they did choose one, they’re both terrible ideas. Why should the state determine what kind of healthcare you get? No thanks. Usually if the state “takes care” of you, they want something back in return. The state owns you. Why can’t people get this through their heads?
Some diabetes is a genetic issue and regardless of weight they will always have diabetes but you are correct, High cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes are largely related to poor lifestyle choices.
because the majority of Democratic socialists including their darling Occasio-Cortez are financially illiterate
Even they even took Economics 101, just basic economics for dummies they would see how much they dont know, mind you they might be too stupid to even comprehend something so simple.
If they want to see how Medicare for Most works, tell them to spend a month in the UK and ask Old people , fat people what the medical situation is like, or spend time in a Tier 4 or 5 city in China and then lets talk about Medicare for all.
Comparing Healthcare in Scandinavia to America is really really and I mean really stupid, America has 325 million people , not counting illegals
The Scandinavian countries population of 27 million can fit into the Democratic People’s republic of California
Can these Democratic Socialists think for one second what would it cost the government to insure 325 million citizens plus Illegals and everyone else who wants to come here?
If they cant help the homeless in San Fran, what makes them think they can take care of the entire country?
I do love it when even sources that are relatively conservative whine about low income children & their families not having access to fresh fruits & vegetables.
Gee, they seem able to afford cell phones, cigarettes & private vehicles in areas where there is reliable public transit. Poverty & obesity can be matters of priority.
However there are other factors that can lead to obesity later in life, like childhood sexual abuse. Sedentary jobs & lifestyles made possible by dependency on driving in most U S regions doesn’t help.
Some individuals put on weight due to various treatments. Having needed a new anti seizure medicine that I get as a migraine preventive, the medicine, once it stopped kicking me in the gut, increased appetite & weight, which the neurologist explained could be side effects. I’ll take feeding my face & 10 extra lbs over another E R visit any old day.
When I went to school? We had one whole hour to burn off steam every day. I was queen of the jungle gym and won the Presidential Fitness Award every year.
One has to wonder, though, why these countries with high income tax have high happiness ratings as well.
The demand for healthcare will still be higher than what the country can afford, especially if we allow illegal immigrants into the U.S., who have no intention of contributing to the U.S. economy, and instead send their money back to Mexico.
Canada also has a smaller population than the U.S. Someone could make the argument that China has a quarter of the world’s population, and it had universal healthcare back in 1949, but they soon stopped that. I wonder why? (that question was sarcastic).
(that question was sarcastic).