How much more Taxes would you be willing to pay for covering the Healthcare of everyone ?

[UndertheOcean]

Poll question: How much more Taxes would you be willing to pay for covering the Healthcare of everyone ?

how much is unacceptable for you?

As it is , all taxes (fed , local , medicare , ss) take a 32.1 % bite out of my paycheck . Now if a 40% chunk is required to cover everyone i am behind it and totally support it , more than 40% percent and I start having second thoughts. Maybe that makes me a bad person , but I need to meet my daily expenses.

How much more are you willing to be taxed to provide Healthcare for every man , woman and child in this country ?

[BlooInBloo]

1. If more is needed after fairly taxing the wealthy, I'm happy to go up to 40% of mine.

[stuball111]

2. Wouldn't need much to do it...

about 6% and everybody could have it...

[UndertheOcean]

4. Then why is it not done yet if a mere 6% is enough !

Are you sure about the 6% figure ?

[stuball111]

25. That's an approximation...but...

I was reading or saw on TV lately that in Canada's UHC System, they pay average $350 per person in taxes for the lower income brackets, and it is a graduated up from there to about $650 for higher income, say up to 150-200 grand/year, then I think corporations and business pays an even bigger chunk, anyways, it averages out to that because some people don't work and there's all kinds of other factors. In some Provinces they also pay premiums of about $80 per month or so. But overall, it's pretty cheap because not everybody gets sick at the same time, and the system of course costs about 50% less to operate there. The other thing is that of course is that it's not for profit.

We could have it here overnight but the fight by big insurance is that they will go out of business, which is not 100% true. There would still be a place for them for dental and vision and some things that wouldn't be covered like massage therapy, chiropractic, but the only point that is correct about their argument is that a lot of administrative type workers for insurance companies would be out of a job. Some would probably go work for the government system , but that's the only down side other than corporate insurance profit would nosedive.

And the other reason it hasn't been done yet of course, is that big insurance has a strangle hold on us since the 50's when we let them out of the kennel by not starting a public option back when Truman, Kennedy or Johnson wanted to.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. I'd be willing to pay amounts/percentages similar to Canada's.

I don't know how much that would be.

[Roland99]

5. The extra 3.3% as contained in HR 676 (Single Payer)

[UndertheOcean]

6. all this gnashing of teeth about single payer , for a whooping 3.3% Tax increase ?

!!!!!!!!!!!!11 Congress is really owned by the Insurance companies

[Roland99]

7. Also includes repealing the Bush era tax cuts, an extra 3.3% from employers, etc.

but, yeah, it won't take much.

Yet Obama deems Single Payer to be "too radical"


More detail:

Proposed Funding For HR 676 Program

Maintain current federal and state funding for existing healthcare programs; employer payroll tax of 4.5%, an employee payroll tax of 3.3%, in addition to the already existing 1.45% for Medicare; establish a 5% health tax on the top 5% of income earners; 10% tax on top 1% of wage earners, 1/3rd of 1% stock transaction tax, closing corporate tax loop-holes; repeal the Bush tax cut for the highest income earners.

[Mind_your_head]

8. First tell me what the people making over $110,000/year are willing to kick in.....

THEN I will tell you my answer.

[vadawg]

12. why $110,000 i thought the magic number was $250,000

if i remember rightly during the campaign the $250,000 was the number touted as the cut off for wealthy and non wealthy...

[Mind_your_head]

26. I'm not sure......but MM & Sean Insanity seem to agree that $110,000 is the NUMBER

Mebbe MM threw that one out there for SEAN to catch, and he didn't! As for me, I don't make anywhere near that, so making six figures ~ whether it's $110,000 or more than twice that at $250,000 is "kind of all the same to me".

Now for people making in those 6 figure ranges, SURE I can understand their concern, but I don't see/hear them speaking out very much (although our media does a p*ss-poor job of disseminating information - ON PURPOSE!)

[Hekate]

9. Other. Make the megacorporations pay their FAIR SHAIR of US taxes, and then we can talk about...

... raising mine. They hide behind offshore accounts and post office boxes in the Bahamas, yet they want every consideration of the US government and protection of their interests by treaties, trade agreements, and the US military. PAY UP, YOU GREEDY BASTARDS!

Reallocate even a fraction of the Pentagon/weapons research/war machine budget toward universal health care, and we can talk about raising my taxes. They freaking get OVER HALF of the budget!

I want to make it perfectly clear that I have never begrudged a penny of the taxes I pay that go toward the common good, whether it be food stamps, welfare, roads, schools, even what is actually necessary to maintain a protective military force.

But over the past 9 years I have reconsidered my point of view to include the above. THIS COUNTRY HAS THE MONEY TO PAY FOR TOP-NOTCH MEDICAL CARE FOR EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD WITHIN OUR BORDERS, AND WE CHOOSE TO SPEND IT ON CRAP LIKE MISSILES THAT GET BLOWN UP FOR PRACTICE.

:rant:

Having said that, of course I will pay more in personal taxes if that is what it will take to get a good UHC system going. I just dearly wish that Congress would re-prioritize the existing budget and tax code.

Hekate

[SammyWinstonJack]

19. Great rant!

:applause:

[MrModerate]

10. Fankly, compared to other developed countries, I'm undertaxed.

And unfortunately (and I'm sure every taxpayer feels this to one extent or another), they spend my money on things of which I don't approve way too often. However, given the benefit that universal healthcare would deliver to the country as a whole, I'd be happy to pay more for it.

OTOH, I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to pay US income taxes on income I earn in other countries (I'm usually taxed by the foreign country, too). Most developed countries don't tax expatriate income, and the practic impedes American competitiveness overseas. There is an exemption, but it hardly covers the whole bite. US-based corporations manage to avoid paying taxes on what they earn overseas, I'm not sure why I shouldn't get the same treatment.

[vadawg]

13. yep ive never understood that either, why some of my income is taxed twice

though luckily i dont pay taxes on the majority of it at all....

[jannyk]

11. If I get taxed more, do I lose the Insurance Premium?

Or are you talking extra tax PLUS existing premium? I'm more than willing to pay $500 a month (my existing premium) if I, and everyone else, gets decent health care. But not one red cent if any of it goes to for profit health corps!

[FormerDittoHead]

14. Exactly. Not one NET penny more...

If we, my wife and I, weren't ALREADY paying for health insurance, I'd be HAPPY to pay the SAME AMOUNT in higher taxes to join a gov't run health insurance system that would cover everyone.

And ASSUMING that reform would LOWER OUR PREMIUMS, I would pay the DIFFERENCE in a taxes.

BUT NOT MORE.

I DO *NOT* SUPPORT PAYING MORE TAXES TO THEN BE GIVEN TO CORPORATIONS TO SUPPORT A *BROKEN* SYSTEM.

We *ALREADY* pay *PER CAPITA* (those with AND without insurance) more than any other country. ANY OTHER COUNTRY. NOT "MOST OTHER COUNTRIES".

EVERY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE *WORLD* HAS FIGURED OUT HOW TO PAY LESS PER PERSON EVEN *WITH* PRIVATE INSURANCE AND MOST WITH COVERING EVERYONE.

There is NO EXCUSE for any substantive health care bill to end up raising taxes on 98% of people.

There are MAJOR, STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS with our system, and simply creating a "tax and redistribute" welfare state with corporations as middlemen isn't going to work economically nor politically. One such, major problem in our system is the 'fee for service' model.
ref: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0910/p09s01-coop.html

THERE WILL BE *NO EXCUSE* for ANY tax increase on 98+% of Americans (who already pay for coverage) to go up as a result of whatever reform comes out.

ANY TAX INCREASE ON MIDDLE (98+%) AMERICANS IS A TOTAL FAIL.

[vadawg]

15. yup as i stated the promise was no one earning less than $250k would pay more in taxes

i think this would be a total deal breaker if the promise is broken without a hell of an excuse....

[zeemike]

16. It is kind of a push poll

You start with the assumption that it will cost more in tax....instead of asking where the money will go, to insurance companies or the government to pay for health care.
What is it now but a tax on consumers when we pay the investors and CEOs gobs of money for our health insurance instead of a single payer NONE PROFIT system.
Asking which one people would prefer would get you much different results.

[hedgehog]

17. Dumb question. I believe Obama when he says my costs

will go down or at least remain the same. I'm not in the top 10%.

[MadHound]

18. Tell you what, end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,

Cut our defense budget to the point where we're only spending more than the next five countries combined, then we won't have to talk about a tax hike.

I'm tired of being forced to pay for an outrageous military outlay that is sucking up money that is desperately needed for domestic programs.

[Overseas]

20. Restoring taxes on top earners to 50%, before Reagan's tax cuts

made our deficits the biggest in history to that point would be a good start.

Put simply, the rich pay a lot of taxes as a total percentage of taxes collected, but they don’t pay a lot of taxes as a percentage of what they can afford to pay, or as a percentage of what the government needs to close the deficit gap.

Mr. Buffett compiled a data sheet of the men and women who work in his office. He had each of them make a fraction; the numerator was how much they paid in federal income tax and in payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and the denominator was their taxable income. The people in his office were mostly secretaries and clerks, though not all.

It turned out that Mr. Buffett, with immense income from dividends and capital gains, paid far, far less as a fraction of his income than the secretaries or the clerks or anyone else in his office. Further, in conversation it came up that Mr. Buffett doesn’t use any tax planning at all. He just pays as the Internal Revenue Code requires. “How can this be fair?” he asked of how little he pays relative to his employees. “How can this be right?”

Even though I agreed with him, I warned that whenever someone tried to raise the issue, he or she was accused of fomenting class warfare.

“There’s class warfare, all right,” Mr. Buffett said, “but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html

[Union Yes]

21. Tax ACCUMULATED wealth of those with net worth of more than $10 million. Close the wealth divide!

[Overseas]

22. How much of the 54% of taxes we pay for the military would you be willing to divert

to national health insurance?


http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm

[SmileyRose]

23. SINGLE PAYER WILL COST *LESS* - You will get a raise !!!

I apologize for yelling at you. I just wish Democrats would get their shit together and start telling the one simple truth like a broken record. Single payer will cost less, give everyone access when they need it, and will keep the quality of our medical care where it is or better. Period.


Look what is paid for my and hubby's medical care (including prescriptions, medical eye exams and basic dental and basic vision correction).

Employer paid premiums to be paid in 2009 - $7800
My part of premiums to be paid in 2009 $1300
Deductables (maximum out of pocket) $4000 (which we reached in 2008 and 2009)
Copays (doctors, tests, prescriptions) $2160 (used 2009 ave to project Oct, Nov Dec)
Non covered medically necessary $2400


Grand total 2009 $17,660



Projected costs under Single payer -- Combined gross income 2009 $33,000

Projected 4% paid by employer $1320
Projected 4% paid by employee $1320
Projected $10 copay or less $ 720
Likely spending on non-covered $ 120

Grand total 2009 if single payer $3480


And for those who say the numbers can't possible work considering we used so much medical care in 2008 and 2009. I am 52 and my husband is 58. We both started working at 15 yrs old and only recently are using a lot of medical care (mostly him). If we had been paying a total of 8% of our combined income (which was obviously higher before he got sick) then we would have been paying in for decades and using very little of it in medical care.

This is how insurance of all kinds works. Everyone pays in, MOST people do not access nearly the dollar amount the pay in. Only a few use up everything they paid or more. You pay in year after year so that when something big and expensive happens, you don't have to come up with the money by yourself.

[madokie]

24. Whatever it would take

[Blue_In_AK]

27. If they would take the $800 a month

we pay as our insurance premium and give it to the government instead, I'd be fine with that.

[flvegan]

28. Ask me after we end a couple wars.

I'd be happy to put tax money in to give everyone health care, but I want to see the balance sheet after we pull some 12 figure amount out of the defense budget for bullshit.

[The Hope Mobile]

29. We need to go back to the pre-Reagan tax structure. period!

Most of us can't afford to give any more and shouldn't really have to. Pre-Reagan taxes and financial regulations are how we get where we need to go again.

[bertman]

30. How about ZERO percent. I'm sick of my tax dollars going to the Pentagon, the CIA, the

defense industry, subsidizing medical insurance companies (oh yes we do), paying for abstinence-only education, paying for church-affiliated organizations to do work our government should be doing.

But worst of all, I'm sick of seeing the Wall Street vampires being given more and more of our hard-earned cash because they pay off everybody in government from the President down.

I am happy to pay taxes to support defense. But not aggression or protection of corporate resources in foreign nations--or here, for that matter.

I am happy to pay taxes when I know they are being used for services that benefit our nation and help us to be more secure from want.

I am happy to pay taxes to educate our children, feed and clothe and house the needy, give small businesses and innovative entrepreneurs a leg up, to clean up our air and water and to inspect our foods to be sure it is safe to eat.

But enough is fucking enough.

Stop the abuse of the taxpayers under the guise of needing more tax dollars. We already have more than enough if we spend them wisely.

[krispos42]

31. 13.6% of my gross goes to the feds. An even 17% if you add in the state income tax

Another 7.26% of my check goes away for my private medical & dental coverage.


So if we had a decent government program, that 7.26% could go to the gov't plan instead and I wouldn't even notice. And you could even go another couple of percentage points higher if the copays were lower.



However, I think that simply having a flat tax on ALL gross income... individual, corporate, earned, unearned, capital gains, etc. would be the best way to do it.


Individuals has 8.7 trillion worth of taxable gross income in 2007. A 5% flat tax would raise 435 billion towards healthcare just from individuals alone. ExxonMobile had gross revenues of well over 400 billion last year... a 5% tax on that would raise 20 billion right there. We paid 400 billion in interest on the national debt last year... that's another 20 billion.


So put in a flat tax on all gross income, whatever it has to be. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7%... whatever. I'm currently paying over 8.5% of my gross for health insurance between FICA and my private insurers. Companies would no longer have to buy health insurance or the people to adminster it, so the savings would be substantial to them.

[Name removed]

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