Health Insurance vs. tax for universal health care?

Question

what exactly is the difference... granted one is manditory, but those who elect not to get health insurance have no means to pay for medical care and default the debt, which increases insurance rates...

so those who pay for insurance are paying for it anyway, just like they would in taxes?

At least if it was in taxes, everyone would help pay for it... and maybe we wouldn't have to pay for Insurance CEOs to get paid millions and benifits...

and insurance is not even good for competition, since many health care compaines don't have competition in many cases...

nathanael_beal: I've never seen that number and it doesn't sound right... that would be billions to run the IRS... maybe in all of government, but that's not what you're saying...

netjr: a few points

A. just because a person doesn't make up a large percent of the taxes, doesn't mean they don't pay... many who pay in that lower 50 percent need the money they pay to taxes much more than many in the upper 50 percent... if you take away $10 a week from someone that only makes $100, it hurts that person much more than taking $200 from a person making $1,000, even though they are paying 10 percent more in tax (of course this is just an example)

B. Those in the uppper 50 percent wouldn't have to pay insurance anymore... and as high as health insurance is... the tax burnden would most likely not exceed what 90 percent are paying now for insurance...

C. The only fear with the "force feeding" is a drop in quality, granted those fears also exist with universal health care...

BUT TO BE FRANK... I would be MORE than happy to accept your idea as a comprimise... the system is broken and something must be done...

Leogirl0804: medicare and medicaid already exists for those people... this plan would help the middle class most... people paying huge insurance bills, when they are not making huge salaries...

libertyhasdied: well... is there somewhere in the constitution that says you have to test all children like in "No Child Left Behind"... of course not... just because it's not in the constitution, it doens't stop the Government from mandating actions...

in fact, it wouldn't have to be manditory, but a "strong suggestion," much like No Child Left Behind... where government funding will be with held if states don't comply...

Answer 1

we waste billions on paperwork and insurance CEO salaries. it's ridiculous. i didn't like hillary's plan because she wanted to keep the insurance companies involved. they are the enemy.

Answer 2

The IRS uses 65% of all tax money simply for processing the taxes. That is horribly inefficient. Every level of Governmental beuracracy increases the inefficiency. so, far less of your money would go toward healthcare run by the Governmet than if you just paid for it yourself.


For the 65% statistic look up "The American Enterprise" also after looking at it farther it says that operating the tax system eat up an estimated 65% of every dollar collected in tax. so the IRS alone may not use all that but the treasury department takes some of that money and everyone else who gets their hand on it takes some until after processing all of the money only 35% of what they collect is actually used to run anything in the government other than processing the taxes.


There is a reason that the rich from countries outside of the US who have socialized medicine will travel to the US for medical care of serious conditions, that reason is that socialized medicine is inefficient and you are more likely to get the newest, but expensive, treatments here in the US because it doesn't matter if the government pays for it. The more bureacracy you have, the harder it will be to convince researchers to develop new techniques.

In my opinion, we need to abolish the paternalistic practice of withholding taxes. We need to switch to a system where the government sends out a bill to each and every American at the end of the fiscal year. Too many people just have no concept of exactly how much the Government takes because they never get to handle that money.

Answer 3

Those who have no insurance probably don't for economic reasons and so they won't be paying taxes for universal health care either. You know 50% of America pays almost no taxes; so basically what you are asking is for the 50% that does pay - to pay more so there is some kind of insurance benefit for those who don't. Thing is this - those who don't do have medical care paid for by those who do now. So why change? For a new bureacracy?

There is a crisis in health care; and that crisis is that we spend $700 billion a year on it and it grows by 4.5 to 5% each year. Its phenomenal in size. What is the solution? More taxes, universal health care, and bureacracy - NO. The solution is competition. Our government needs to force feed the industry more people (training, education, more nurses, doctors, etc). Then and only then will "costs" level off. The industry (particularly the unions) don't want this but society should demand it.

Answer 4

Which section of the Constitution gives the federal government any authority regarding health care in the place?

Health care is a matter reserved to the people or to the States. The tenth amendment (notes added)

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution(Article I section 8), nor prohibited by it to the States(Article I section 10), are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Answer 5

You are one confused liberal. I would not be paying for just my health care. I know those damn liberals would have me paying for every son of a ***** that ever crossed this border and then some. No f'ing way. I will not give them another nickle until I see major reforms. If they reformed the money rich programs they already have then they wouldn't need my money at all. Sorry....Anyway you slice that cake it reeks of waste. People that want national health care can move their butts to Canada or some other country with socialized medicine.

Answer 6

One company would not have trillions of dollars to tamper with most mutual funds on the market. The average tax payer wouldn't have to pay for their own health insurance, most public official health insurance. All on medicare Medicare, and all the goodies George keeps heaping on to get recruits. Otherwise no difference

Answer 7

I'm with Hillary