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Are they gaps or are those who able to pay in those countries simply taking advantage of their financial superiority by jumping ahead in the proverbial line?
They are gaps. And they are very real. A Canadian just posted that prescriptions aren't covered, and they have to buy a separate policy for that.
These are some very good points and I appreciate your thoughtful reply.
Another scenario is the one we are currently in midst of - so many people in our population are takers and not makers. Their combined might strains an already-underfunded and maxed-out public healthcare system. Just how much in taxes should makers be expected to give in order to pay for this all? All the calculations thus far show that universal care will require a vast amount of tax revenue plus government funds to operate and will likely go bankrupt before too long. I've just not seen a plan yet that won't end in insolvency.
I've kept out the more commonly-discussed issues like wait times, government intrusion into your personal life, medical boards that deny/approve care, etc. They are important issues, too. Combined, the idea of universal care is simply a frightening proposition for many. I'd like to see the topic discussed without so much drama, rhetoric, and insults ... but I know it can't be.
You are repeating divisive rhetoric that the wealthy corporations and the politicans they own use to keep people divided and blaming the poor for all our problems while holding the wealthy corporations blameless. Earning a low income does not make somene an undeserving "taker." This country has millions of people doing low income work that is absolutely necessary for our country to keep functioning. The low wage worker is just as important to our economy as the middle and upper class worker. The vast majority of people who recieve some type of government assistance are working low wage jobs and simply do not earn enough to support themselves and their families. The fact that one can work full time for the countries largest employer and still earn so little they qualify for and need government help is a problem. The real takers are the companies that earns billions in profits but refuse to pay their workers enough to live on and expect the taxpayers to make up the difference.
Many low income workers work a lot harder than the typical middle class office worker. Is the CNA who works extremely hard taking care of grandma all day, (or all night) including doing difficult tasks most would find unpleasant, such as helping her use the bathroom a "taker" who is undeserving of health care because she barely earns more than minimum wage?
The countries with benfits such as health care, child care, guarenteed paid vacation/sick leave, low or no cost higher eduction also have higher minimum wages. These countries have all the same type of jobs but the people who do them earn more in addition not having to worry about health care expenses so they are able to pay more in taxes. If our corporations were required to pay living wages instead of expecting taxpayer subsidies there would be very few people that could be derisively call "takers" and used as scapegoats because most of those people are actually working very hard and deserve better.
If you want an accurate number to compare taxation - to the USA you;d have to add:
10.5K per person for health care (it's included in the other countries, not here). So that would be 42K per year for a family of 4 here in ADDITIONAL TAXES.
Worse yet, many of our tax savings are our of increased debt! In other words, we have been adding this to the 20 Trillion already owed....to make our taxes look lower.
I ask you honestly- assuming you are capable of doing the math - to add to the USA figure both the money needed to balance the budget and pay down the debt (and interest) and also the amount spent on health care (it's included with those other nations).
Guess what? When you do that you will see we are taxed MORE than most other nations. Only difference is that we enjoy both fooling ourselves and passing on debt to our children instead of being responsible adults and paying our way.
Yep, in fact even without considering those factors Americans are taxed a good deal, even a bit higher than most European and certainly Asian and S. American countries. I've worked in a lot of places and the state plus local and property taxes in the US are a good deal higher than abroad. And US business taxes are very very high, among the steepest in the world for small businesses. I had much less business tax in Europe than in the US, even in Scandinavia.
They are gaps. And they are very real. A Canadian just posted that prescriptions aren't covered, and they have to buy a separate policy for that.
I'm Canadian as well. The reply was simplified. Drugs given while in hospital are free. The provinces also have programs to subsidize the cost of drugs for low income Canadians. In my province it's called Pharmacare. Pharmacare also covers the cost of approved cancer drugs for everyone (no low income requirement).
Yep, in fact even without considering those factors Americans are taxed a good deal, even a bit higher than most European and certainly Asian and S. American countries.
Very clearly NOT true. I posted the Tax Revenue as a Percentage of GDP chart among developed countries. The US doesn't even come close to the OECD average, and many OECD countries collect nearly double the percentage of GDP the US does in tax revenue.
First you'd have to prove that it "works" in those countries. The number of people who buy additional insurance and go out of the country for treatment would argue that it DOESN'T work.
Also the US isn't like those other countries, they don't have the huge welfare class of the US and have very different tax structures. Just look at the way US liberals howl anytime someone mentions everyone paying their own way, or at least paying SOMETHING. Those other countries the left admire so much don't have a "47%" like the US. Just who do you think would pay for healthcare when one party thinks everyone should get it but only half should pay for it.
What on earth are you talking about?
"Those other countries" don't have our tax structure, true. But by your definition of "socialism", they do have a huge welfare class - everyone in the whole darn country!
And the ACA definitely does require just about everyone using it to pay something. That's one of the premises that underlie it. The only ones who don't are people who are so broke they're on medicaid.
The following also applies to the discussion in this thread...
Other countries with single-payer health care have a VAT tax, with most at 20%-25%. Let's take a look at what that VAT (national sales) tax would have to be in the US to cover the US's $3+ trillion per year spending on health care.
US consumer spending is $11.6 trillion/year (latest published data). That means we need to implement about a 30% VAT on everything, paid by everyone, to fund single-payer health care for all.
Implement adjustments up or down in the VAT rate, as health care spending requires.
A 30% VAT tax is pretty close to many European countries' 25% VAT tax. So, would Americans agree to implement a 30% VAT tax to fund single-payer health care for all?
GST in Australia is 10%, and has been so since 1999, when it was introduced.
Australia also has higher and much flatter income tax brackets than the US. Australia's top income tax bracket (45% tax rate) kicks in at the equivalent of $137,445 US$. The US top bracket tax rate doesn't kick in until $400,000. That's a huge difference.
Actually, it does. In anywhere other than the US, a foreign pharmaceutical supplier can call their product an "Epipen." Patents are country-specific and are limited to the borders of the issuing country. A US patent does nothing to prevent infringement in any other country.
This isn't totally true. The US participates by treaty with a number of other countries for mutual patent recognition.
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