I don't have the numbers on Denmark but I do for Canada. So they say its "free", but its far from it. In fact Canadians pay substantially more for it over their life time then americans do. Roughly a little under 50% of Canadas budget goes to healthcare (dependent on the year), which means 50% of Canadians taxes (about 30% tax rate (significantly lower then Denmarks)) goes to healthcare. This comes out to be about 7,000-8,000 per person, per year for roughly 50 years of their life (presuming they start work at the age of 18 and retire at 70(their is some give or take here as some start working younger, others older some retire early some don't retire at all, some have multiple jobs etc.).
This comes out to be about 400,000 dollars spent on healthcare over their life span regardless of whether or not they have used it (and ignoring that their own supreme court stated that banning private healthcare and forcing people to use public healthcare only was "inhumane" due to its insane weight times that cost thousands of people their lives each year, lives that could have been much more easily saved and it doesn't take into account how often Canadians come to the US for healthcare and pay out of pocket here (estimated 63,000 canadain left Canada for medical precedures elsewhere (primarily in the US)).
Now if you look at the average cost of the US insurance, its about 400 dollars annually. Take into account the 50 year period like with Canada and you get about 20,000 dollars spent in your life time for medical care that your not using. When you factor in the smaller bills for check ups, the out of pockets you probably have at most 50,000 dollars in your life time. But even then that doesn't include the fact that since its voluntary most people don't actually get health insurance until around the age of 30 so its even lower then that. Then when you factor in that with government involvement in hospitals and regulations and lobbying, and medicare and Medicaid we have actually seen a 600% increase in prices since the 60s so technically ours has gotten that much more expensive and its still far cheaper then every other nations.
In short, as always, free is the most expensive thing you will ever buy. I'm good with what we have.
the income tax in China grows pretty quickly. Even the poorest class in china pays 3% income tax, and they don't have very many/big deductions and credits. Anybody who makes more than $80,000 per year pays 45% income tax in China... and your taxes are calculated and due on a monthly basis.
the average rich person or corporation in the United States only actually pays a marginal tax rate of about 15%. Warren Buffet only pays a Marginal Tax rate of about 15%, and he's one of the richest people on Earth. He even admitted that his secretaries pay a higher marginal tax rate than him, and he's said several times that he's willing to pay a higher tax rate if all the other rich people are required to pay more taxes.
In the Old Testament of the bible, the required tithing and taxes on rich people comes to about 60% annually or tri-annually (for lumber) and every 50th year everyone's possessions are divided equally among the poor people. This is to prevent a rich family from monopolizing all of the land due to other people's misfortune, BECAUSE you should not be born rich just because you were born in the right womb (Warren Buffet even says so) and you should not be doomed to be poor all your life just because you were born in the wrong womb. So the "Year of Jubilee" is intended to distribute the rich family's wealthy back among the poor people, because the poor people are the ones who did the labor that made the rich family rich in the first place.
If I were President or Senator, I'd put a 7 year limit on Patents, and I'd massively increase the taxes on people who make $200k per year or more, especially millionaires and billionaires... and I'd have a minimum 60% tax on clergy and religious organizations in general, because the Bible has a 60% Tithe/tax on rich people.
I live in Australia which also has universal healthcare, the average tax rate is 35%ish with a tier system the more you earn.
We have a two tiered health system, the public which everyone pays 1.5% of their income towards (covered in the above percentage) which covers GP’s, emergency and elective procedures. Elective can have a decent wait but emergency care like cancer, accidents or life threatening things are straight away.
The second tier is optional, for people to take out private health insurance which gives access to more specialists (most of them still work in the public system in some form), private facilities and little to no waiting time. High income earners are encouraged to pay into this system, by an extra tax levy of 1-2% if they don’t have the private insurance.
Im more than happy to pay into both, and have used both quite a bit. It’s not perfect and it could be done in a more cost effect manner but it’s so, so much better than not having “free” healthcare
No I wouldn't.
If such an option were to exist, it should be like Denmark or Sweden (don't remember which one) where the lower income people actually pay taxes (unlike the US), and they pay more, since they disproportionately benefit from social programs.
Also, if one were to opt out from government paid or provided healthcare, they should be eligible for a tax deduction or credit. I don't like that pretty much people who "opt out", truly can't because even if they have their own private coverage, they still have to subsidize everyone else's coverage.
That's the only way I'd probably support this. But still no.
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No, I wouldn't.
Taxes in Denmark are such a disincentive that there's a special lower tax rate for expatriates, that you can qualify for. Once that three years is up, very few professionals seem to stay. Wonder why?
https://www.bdo.dk/en-gb/insights/tax-and-vat/27-percent-tax-regime
A number of years ago, I was offered a job in Denmark, which is why I looked into this. At the time, you'd get the 30% rate for 36 months, and since then, this seems to have changed to a 27% rate for 84 months. That speaks for itself.
OECD figured out here in Germany we have ~52% taxes. Personally when I calculate my income and how much of it goes to taxes, it's even higher, because a lot of things are taxed multiple times.
And while the healthcare has its advantages here, it also has a shitton of disadvantages - because government can't run things properly due to their monopoly on running it and thus the quality of service decreasing. So generally I am for less government involvement - and in return lower taxes.
In addition to this I don't think the key problem of the US is not having "free" healthcare, but a lot of factors that make medical services very expensive (studying for doctors being very expensive, long-lasting patenting-laws, ridiculous amounts of cost for being sued, etc.)
Denmark also has SIGNIFICANTLY lower immigration than, say, the United States, and has had significantly lower immigration for generations. Further, Denmark has a homogeneous culture, and a fairly well-off one at that.
In a country like the USA, where we have comparatively massive (legal) immigration, with tons of ILLEGAL immigration on top of that, with many different races and cultures and socio-economic levels, such a system would be unsustainable. Even if we completely for 50 years, we'd still have far larger income disparity and cultural friction, because of past immigration levels and because of slavery in the past.
There are other differences as well, but that's more than enough to make the idea an economic disaster.
I tracked my income for two years and itemized absolutely everything. Interestingly, my total tax rate for the year was around 50% including all fuel, sales, use, property, investment, and payroll taxes.
America already has that tax rate, but prefers to hide it in microtaxation, on several different levels, offering virtually nothing to the taxed citizens in return, though the real crime are the tax rates for higher levels of income and corporations. America is great to grow a business: not that great to raise a family.
here in the UK the tax I believe isn't that high to cover the free healthcare, most of out taxation goes towards the politicians and local councils and other services
only reason why our free health care though is struggling atm is cos the current government are underfunding, diverting funds from the NHS and rediverting it to their own pockets... at the same time as they are asset stripping the country and the NHS of resources
Already doing it where I live no one here is complaining about it because at the end of the day we all eventually need to see the GP and have to stay in hospital I like knowing that I can hand over my Medicare card and I can see the doctor and get my prescriptions and not have to worry about not being able to afford to see the doctor
Well, consider how much healthcare costs you otherwise; my employer is paying 80% of the cost of mine, but that is money they could be paying me. And I'm still paying the other 20%, plus the first $500 for annual costs, plus a percentage of actual that is not covered.
it's not that simple. The U. S. has horrible administration of tax money, with a huge percentage being used for political patronage and not for the reasons the average American desires.
While I admit our current health care system is a mess, I simply do not trust our government with the kind of power and resources needed for a single-payer health care system.
Considering that thanks to "free" healthcare incentivizing doctors to work less and go home when they're needed the most is the reason why my fiancee is dead because they refused to wash her stomach and instead wasted time with cold patients, if "free" healthcare comes to this country, everyone who votes for it has blood on their hands, I will shed the blood of those who vote for that, mark my words.
We pay at least That unless your poor... just think..35% income... then another 10% whem you buy something... then there's local taxes property taxes not to mention social security and medicare taxes they help themselves to. .. oh and dont forget state taxes. We easily pay more than them and dont get much
It would either be beneficial to you while someone else pays for it or you are the one paying for it (and for other). Free means nothing, nothing is free.
Absolutely. I wouldn’t want to live in a country where people die because they can’t afford insulin lol
I get free health care and prescriptions in my country. Very few have any problems with it being paid through by tax.
In the u. s. about 30% goes to taxes and about 30% goes to health care. 45% to both taxes and heath care is a huge bargain.
Only a fool will agree to pay 45% of their income on taxes. I support universal decent healthcare for every citizen of a nation but no way it will be close to 45% of individual taxes.
Yeah. A hospital bill and medication in the U. S. costs way more than that.
It would be a cost benefit analysis for me. Cost of current taxes insurance premiums deductible and out of pocket expenditures, the costs probably aren't that much different to the point it is worth at least considering.
I'm opposed to the income tax, period. The United States abolished slavery but has taxation systems - federal and state - that makes most of us de facto slaves who work for nothing for 1/4 to 1/2 of the year.
They have free healthcare, better basic education, more accessible college education, better social programs, etc etc.
Denmark isn't the only country with "free" healthcare. We have it in the UK and we aren't greatly taxed at this point in our history. But Denmark probably has better provision than we do.
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