Universal Health Care Might Cost You Less Than You Think We don't think of the premiums we already

[applegrove]

Universal Health Care Might Cost You Less Than You Think

We don’t think of the premiums we already pay as taxes, but maybe we should.

By Matt Bruenig Opinion, at the N.Y. Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/opinion/medicare-for-all-cost.html

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If we reimagine these premiums as taxes, we’d realize that Americans pay some of the highest and least progressive labor taxes in the developed world.

Just how heavy is the burden placed on American workers by employer insurance premiums? By combining data from the O.E.C.D.Taxing Wages model with data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we can see what percentage of each worker’s compensation — a figure that includes cash wages as well as the taxes and benefits employers pay on behalf of their employees — goes toward taxes and health care, and how progressive these payments really are.

What this data shows is that lower-income workers, higher-income workers, single workers, and married workers with children all contribute around 40 percent of their pay toward taxes and health premiums. And when those health care costs are taken into account, the less well off no longer pay less than high-earners, as they do in taxes alone.

So, while opponents of comprehensive plans like Medicare for All claim those plans will greatly burden middle-class families, the truth is that we already have an unfair system. Middle-class workers in America are charged the same health insurance fees as upper-class workers despite the vast income differences between the two groups, and pay more of their earnings toward taxes and health care than workers in many wealthy countries.



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[playaseeker]

1. It is super simple

Just focus on these metrics:

1. Every other first world country has socialized medicine
2. In general they pay half (as a % of GDP) for healthcare when compared to the US. Half
3. They get better medical outcomes for more people. The US ranks about 30th in population health

So we are spending 2X what countries with socialized medicine pay and we are getting worse outcomes. The reason? Hundreds of billions go to insurance companies and Big Pharma with no benefit to the consumer. And that folks, is a tax.

[marylandblue]

3. Except that not every other country in the world has socialized medicine.

There's more than one system out there, and none of them look like Bernie's.

[area51]

2. Gonna bold this section:

"What this data shows is that lower-income workers, higher-income workers, single workers, and married workers with children all contribute around 40 percent of their pay toward taxes and health premiums. And when those health care costs are taken into account, the less well off no longer pay less than high-earners, as they do in taxes alone."

Please support comprehensive Medicare for All, and ask Speaker Pelosi to support it.