Who gets to pay for universal health care?

is universal health care the one we have over here in holland? well, the company’s do, but i know the employers contribute as well, hmmm, good question

Everyone should pay, and as a result, collectively everyone pays about half what they currently do for the same level of service.

Well, when I left my last job that had insurance I had the opportunity to continue my coverage through a program called COBRA. I was a healthy 23 year old that never actually used my insurance while I worked there. They wanted around 350$ per month to continue my coverage after I left. I am going to assume that that is about what the company paid to insure me.

So they could have paid that to me instead. So the question is. If they could have given me that extra 350$ per month instead of the insurance company and the government taxed it for universal coverage would I come out ahead? I’m not really sure I know the answer but the HMO’s make a lot of profit per quarter.

Universal health care depends on taxes on individuals and corporations. These should be progressive – that is, the rich pay more. Taxes make people violently angry, because there’s always someone who feels they’re paying more than their share. So we don’t tax ourselves enough tohave universal health care. So we have a higher level of infant mortality than we should, and so on. We as a community chose this.

$350/mth!?! That’s f#ckin insane. Universal healthcare in Canada is $54/mth (free if you can’t afford it).

@Maverick
My sister and her husband have to pay over a 1000$ per month to keep his insurance for them and the three kids when he is laid-off.. He is a union electrician. The system here is broken.

That’s insane. Americans really do put up with some outrageous realities.

Just as a follow-up, Frontline had a good show recently about the US healthcare system and some lessons it could learn from other countries. It was quite good. Basically said the same things that Michael Moore said in “Sicko”, but I realize a lot of Americans seem to vilify him, aparently because he was willing to talk about the mess in Iraq before most people were willing to.

The taxpayers….AKA The employed…...

@boffin: yes? what is your point? the employed probably ought to be paying for the
unemployed, shouldn’t they? Since they can? and let’s also include the rich, who may
or may not be employed – me, for example – I have enough $$ to relinquish employment and this obligates me to give money away, right? what is your point?

susan~ that confused me, I can’t tell if your being sarcastic

I’m a natural socialist, maybe that’s a little foreign. I think the rich are obligated to help the poor because it makes a better community.
I think the rich generally got rich because they had a head start of some kind – excellent parenting, lucky opportunities to work with good teachers, protection from danger in childhood, early excitement about bodies of knowledge that allowed them to pursue interesting careers, and so on; and once a person gets comfortable I think they have an obligation to PROVIDE a head start for someone else.
Since I have enough $ to be able to quit working, I must also have enough $ to give some of it away. Nothing complex about it.
All religions expect people to embrace these principles. I’m not religious. It just
seems kind of human to think this way.