by Jack Lee
In response to Ms. Libby’s support for universal healthcare in the United States, she seems to think the countries she named off in her post are doing well with universal healthcare so we should be able to do it too. First, our medical system is so much more advanced than any of theirs and our taxes a far lower. If you look at the median tax brackets in those countries compared to the United States, you will see they pay a horrendous amount in taxes for universal health care that is nowhere near the standard of care we enjoy.
90% of our system functions very well, why scrap 90% to take care of the 10% that needs fixing? At the very most 7-10% of the people who really want medical insurance for various reasons are not getting it and this has to be addressed. Also we need to fix the insurance business so people with health insurance don’t go bankrupt because it ran out…too many times it does and thats not right either.
In the United States the federal tax rate for those making between $15,650 – $63,700 is about 15 percent (this rate assume a joint return is filed). In Italy, universal healthcare is supported by a federal tax rate for those making between $28,001 – $55,000 of 38 percent!In England where you can get treatment for $5 a visit, people earning under $147,000 have a tax rate at about roughly 41 percent. Argentina has a 35% tax rate, but when the value added tax and the wealth tax is added in it averages out around 43%. Argentina is ranked 25th out of 29 countries in the South and Central America/Caribbean region for economic freedom. Uruguay has an income tax of 25 percent for the top rate, but also other taxes that include a value-added tax (VAT), a capital gains tax, and a property transfer tax. In the most recent year, overall tax revenue as a percentage of GDP was 23.1 percent and that’s pretty high. The USA only has about 7% in income tax as percentage of our GDP. I could go on and show you all the tax rates where universal healthcare exists, but you should be able to understand by these examples, it is expensive, and it will raise our taxes dramatically in the USA if we went to universal healthcare, there’s no way around it.
Libby, you have a choice, you can support fixing what really needs fixing in our private insurance system or scrap it all for universal healthcare system and get stuck with what will amount to about 20% in additional taxes or more and probably much poorer service, no that’s about a 99% chance of poorer service. Yes, Libs that number is absolutely supportable by looking at the tax rates of the countries with universal healthcare and how they rate their service.
By the way, just what effect do you think a 35-40% tax rate on our middle class would have on our economy? And this isn’t scare talk, this is reality!