Quote:
Originally Posted by RainMaker
A person making $100k already pays more than $40k when factoring in health care, property taxes, and sales tax.
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Most property taxes are under 3K and can be deducted off your gross. So, you are talking about an extra $1.5-2K per year in actual money, it's not that much. I didn't include sales tax or VAT tax in Europe, they pretty much cancel each other out. In terms of medical expenses, most plans have an out of pocket max so that even if you have a big expense, it's not costing 20K. Recent studies have found that
families spent on average $714 or 1.6 percent of their take-home income on out-of-pocket health care spending.
There's just no way you are getting to even half what people pay in taxes in Europe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thesloppy
I don't necessarily agree or disagree with your reasoning about caps, but I am thoroughly confused as to how it fits into your argument that you don't want the government controlling your healthcare? Yes Europe can do universal healthcare at much cheaper costs than the US can run it's private system, but only by capping pharmaceutical prices, which you're not sure that the US will implement properly, so you 'd rather continue to pay effectively double for the devil you know?
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I look at this like I look at unions. I like free markets, but some industries that work in the "public good" sectors need a union. I think Police and Fire unions are extremely important given the need to society. A software developer's union? Not so much. I think you could make the argument that capping prescription drug and medical costs is required for the health of the population. That's exactly what Europe has done and why everything is so cheap compared to the US. Now, there are negatives in terms of the US basically subsidizing world health research with the costs they pay, but maybe it's time to start sharing that burden. Either way, I would much rather make a massive change that I know will fix the issue (price costs) as opposed to one that may just end up costing tax payers a ton without any significant cost solution (single payer).