A health care question...

Pekka wrote: Just out of curiosity, in the US approximately how big a percent of let's say a 2000 dollar monthly paycheck is taken away by the gunmen?

Great question, and as a few people have already pointed out one that is almost impossible to answer. 

I’m not aware of any really good comprehensive study on the subject, but it’s not unreasonable to assume that a typical middle-class family lays out 50-75% or more of their income in taxes of one form or another in a given year.  For single people that burden is usually higher since most exemptions on income and gains taxes favor married couples.  And of course that doesn't include the inevitable huge tax increases we'll see in coming years to begin paying down the debt we're incurring bailing out our gambling (er., "banking and insurance") industry.

Here are some taxes that hit just about everyone in the U.S. to one extent or another:

Income:

- Social Security tax (6.2% direct burden on employee and on employer for a total of 12.4%)

- Medicare (1.45% on employee and employer for a total of 2.9%)

- Unemployment tax (6.2% on employer, sum of federal burden offset by whatever state assesses)

- State income taxes (0 to 9.5% percent depending on the state; usually there are caps and exemptions)

- Federal income tax (0-35% based on net income with loads of exemptions and exceptions)

- Local income taxes (vary widely with many regions having none and some having multiple – i.e., county, borough, municipality, city, district, parish, etc.)

- “death” taxes (18-50% with a labyrinth of exemptions, exclusions, etc.)

- Capital gains taxes (vary)

Consumption:

Too many to mention, but here are some of the more prevalent and common -

- State sales taxes (0-8.25%)

- Local sales taxes (vary)

- Property taxes (usually on homes, but also on other properties like campers, boats, etc.)

- Usage taxes (similar to sales tax, often applied to things like hotels, rental cars and entertainment events as a way to shift local tax burdens to tourists and nonresident visitors)

- Communication taxes (levied on telephone, television, internet and other communication services)

- Utility taxes (levied on electricity, natural gas, water, sewage, etc.)

- Automobile taxes (including sales tax, licensing fees, registration, and permits)

- Federal excise taxes (example, 18.5 cents per gallon for gasoline)

- State and local excise taxes (vary)

- “sin” taxes (on tobacco, alcohol and other vices.  Many states and local governments have greatly expanded the use of these taxes in recent years as a way of increasing their coffers by employing a ‘moral indignation’ approach to taxation)

- stupid taxes (i.e., lotteries and gambling – ‘nuff said)

I haven’t read this entire thread and I know there have been other similar ones in recent months, but just a comment (which I’ve made before) on ‘government-funded’ healthcare in the U.S.:  most industry experts acknowledge that ~82% (give or take a few percentage points) of all healthcare expenses in our country are already being paid by one government agency or another, meaning those expenses are paid for through taxes. 

These payers include –

- Medicare (federal)

- Veteran’s Administration (federal, for military and some civil servant retirees and disabled)

- CHAMPVA (federal, for active duty military and their dependents)

- Indian Health Service (federal, for native Americans)

- Medicaid (state, subsidized with federal funds)

- Federal employee insurance (federal, including Congress, the President, Supreme Court, and federal civil servants)

- federal, state and local law enforcement, fire and rescue, shore patrol, border patrol, port authority, immigration and drug enforcement workers

- retired and disabled railroad workers and many air-traffic control workers

- NTSB employees and contractors

- prisoners (federal, state and local), as well as prison workers

And most states have programs for the disabled, elderly, children and disadvantaged citizens who cannot otherwise afford insurance that supplement Medicare and Medicaid.

Also, the federal government is the largest non-profit payer for healthcare research including clinical trials, which contributes both directly and indirectly to publicly-funded healthcare.

Here’s my point:  “We the People” are already paying for the vast, vast majority of healthcare consumed in this country, and we’re doing so through taxation and programs that are controlled by governments. 

The real issue (as I see it) is that insurance companies act as a for-profit middleman shaving hundreds of billions of dollars in profits off the top.  Since most of these insurance companies are multinational corporations whose shares are often held by foreign investors, this means billions of dollars allocated to providing healthcare in our country are instead siphoned off and shipped overseas to line the pockets of wealthy speculators instead.  Those who argue that publicly-funded and managed health coverage will destroy our capitalist society are being duped, misled and driven to fear by very well-funded and powerful industry lobbyists who, candidly, are clearly brighter and more aware than we are.

This is a hugely contentious issue in our country, but I think it is interesting (and a little embarrassing) that so many people from other parts of the world refer to our healthcare system as “barbaric”, “appalling” and “ruthless”.  I know we Americans tend to think of ourselves as ‘special’ and ‘different’ somehow, but it should give pause for thought that more than 6,000,000,000 people around the world all believe that access to medical care is a fundamental human right, while in our country we don’t see a problem with marginalizing nearly 40,000,000 men, women and children simply because they haven’t managed to capture that slice of the capitalist pie that would allow them to pay for those services.

(…dismounting soapbox…)