Where do supporters of universal health care think the money is going to come from?

Question

Our country is already in a situation of deficit spending, so where is the money for universal health care going to come from. Over the next 40-50 years, our government is going to have to pay out increasing amounts to social security and medicare to our aging population that is living longer, and we already supply medicaid and welfare to the poor of the country. So where, among all of this social spending already, is money going to come from to foot the bill for universal health care. The poor are already receiving 30% more in benefits from the government than they are paying out in taxes, so do they think that this is a handout that they are given the right to? I just don't see how universal health care will do anything but promote more unemployment and higher taxes causing our savings problem to get worse, among other things. A higher tax has been proven to cause people to work less. If you don't believe this is true look at Iceland in 1987 when their income wasn't taxed.

Iwasnotanazipolka- I'm in agreement with you that Iraq might not have been the best military situation to get into, but you have to realize that a lot of the democratic candidates are proposing plans that will put the country further into debt. We need to work on our deficit spending first BEFORE we can even think of universal health care. Those that say that universal health care is the most important issue this election just don't know the facts. I think you need to use YOUR head my friend.

Todo- I'm referring to the fact that Iceland transferred from a system of taxes the previous year's taxes to taxing the current year's taxes. They had a year where they had to pay no income taxes, and the study showed that there was a 4% increase in the amount of time workers spent on the job because of the increased incentive to work. So before you answer a question, realize what my examples mean first.

Answer 1

We could cut back on welfare the rich. We spend $16 billion annually in farm subsidies to "farmers" whose family incomes are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. We spend $40 billion to subsidize the airline industry. We are giving away billions in losses on leases for energy and resource extraction on public lands. Trillions are being lost to tax write offs.

Answer 2

The money comes the same way
as it will come after your house burnt.
We call this fancy system "Insurance".
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In 1987 a powerful and popular politician from the
Independence Party, Iceland’s biggest party, the finance
minister Albert Gudmundsson, was replaced by his party
leader, who was Prime Minister at the time. The reason
was that Gudmundsson, the supreme official in fiscal matters
who was campaigning against tax fraud at the time, did not
declare his total income to the tax authorities. Previously he
had been involved in a major case as a member of the board
of the Icelandic Fisheries Bank, which had lent considerable
amounts of money to a shipping company that went bankrupt.

The bankruptcy of the company, Hafskip, shook Icelandic
society and some of the leaders of the company, well-known
businessmen some of whom had been active members of
the Independence Party, were sentenced to prison. Charges
were never filed against Gudmundsson. There is also a
lesser known incident where Gudmundsson received money
from two shipping companies to pay for a trip for his friend,
a leader of a labour movement, who had in fact served as
an MP for a left-wing party, the People’s Alliance.

Gudmundsson received more money than the trip cost
and pocketed the difference, according to reliable sources.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Yep, so far away as you colored the Ice Cream, it seemed
truly just like so romantic yet, just like so Utopia. Dream on.

Briefing for tomorrow: Should not corporates pay a part of
their workers' health insurance - why so fixative with taxes??
The percentage they are supposed to pay then, may depend
on the additional risk your health takes by working conditions.

Answer 3

A great deal of the money, the bulk of it in fact, will come from the money already designated to national and state health welfare programs that will no longer be necessary. That amounts to billions of dollars. The tax cuts Bush gave to the rich will be rolled back. There will almost certainly be a tax increase, but many economists have given the opinion that it will not be excessive. There are other factors to be considered. It will almost certainly put a halt to increasing outsourcing. One the main reasons that companies outsource is to avoid the amazingly high health insurance premiums they are required to pay for American workers. Another factor is what happened in Detroil recently. The auto workers threatened strike and the company couldn't meet their demands until they took the action of raping the retiree's health benefits.

I think some people are getting overly hysterical about the possibility of UHC. It will take a very long time for the details to be worked out satisfactorily before Congress will sign off on it. We can theorize all we wish about what it's going to cost and where the money will come from, but the fact is that right now we just don't have those answers. They won't be available until a realistic plan is ironed out and everyone from the insured to the small business owner is happy. That's going to take a lot of time and hundreds of committee meetings and networking lunch meetings from the people we elect to Congress.

Answer 4

As has been proposed in several plans, to pay for a national health care system a increase in income taxes, based on your income level, will be needed. Now before you panic look at some stats:

Current US income taxes:
Individual - 0 to 35%
Corporate - 15 to 35%

Countries with a national health care plan that are currently considered to be some of the healthier nations based on their Life Expectancy (LE) and their Infant Mortality Rates (IMR):
LE IMR Ind Tax Rate Corp. Tax
Japan 81.4 2.8 15 to 50% 30%
Sweden 80.6 2.8 0 to 55% 28%
Canada 80.3 4.6 0 to 29% 36.1%

Compare to the US:
LE IMR Ind Tax Rate Corp Tax
US 78.0 6.4 0 to 35% 15 to 35%

The claim that the US has the best health care in the world is not backed up by the stats. On average we live 3 years less than the top rated and the US Infant Mortality Rate of 6.4 is one of the highest in the world.

Answer 5

The Liberal Democrats already PARTIALLY answered that questioned. They will get rid of the child tax credit and make the wealthy upper class foot the bill. However, the wealthy do not have an infinite supply of money at their disposal and the government knows this.
Our taxes will be raised to cover part of it, and there will be a deductible. That is how it usually works.
Remember the government never gives anything that is truly free. In fact the Democrats have never said it would be free. A lot of people are just assuming that. That is a BIG mistake.
I have more questions about this universal health care that many politicians have asked but that have not been given straight answers. One question is what type of coverage will be given? Another question is who is covered? I will bet you my left shoe that illegal immigrants will get to take advantage of it. Think about that before you jump on the universal health care band wagon.

Answer 6

Well, americans total spending on healthcare is actually higher then what is spent in most 'developed' countries with universal health care. So it would be paid for via taxes, but offset by no longer paying (directly or indirectly) for health insurance.

Answer 7

the tax's, think about it oh i love the tax's do you? ya right lol. and whit the anti-smoking laws go up here and there and everywhere the people of the US will stop smoking. now some one tell me where is the money now? it is fact the smokers are the high es taxed people in the US. 22 Billion $'s to be exact, all of that will be gone if the smokers stop smoking, so in other words you non-smokers are skewing your self's oh and have fun paying the tax's to, and it will be the us die hard smokers that will the last laugh ha ha ha.

Answer 8

From the same source as the trillions Bush has spent on the war in Iraq - you spend it. Since when did any Republican give a damn about spending? Why did this administration take a surplus and turn us into a debtor nation? Jeez, you gotta use your head, friend.

Answer 9

Why the same great money fairy who supports welfare, environmental causes, stipends so people posing as Katrina refugees can go to strip clubs, and has a tree which continues to grow it.

Answer 10

Nobody creates deficit spending like Republicans.

Reagan and the Bush's have racked up nearly $7 trillion of our $9 trillion debt during only 3 administrations.