Here is a radical idea to solve healthcare quickly.

[Catmusicfan]

First off This by no means is way to disrespect those that serve in uniform. I mentioned this one time and the person I this too said I was being disrespectful to our men and women in uniform.


Does anyone know just how much the United States spent on the military/defense spending in 2016?
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611.2 BILLION DOLLARS

In 2016

China Spent 215.7 Billion

Russia Spent 69.2 Billion

Can you image if we just took a measly 1/2 % of that budget? We could give every American Universal health care and maybe even give every child free head start AND Free college for all.

We would STILL have MORE than enough money to blow up the world 10 times over.

What if we make that our "talking point". Call Every congress member and ask them why our 611.2 Billion dollar defense budget can't be reduce by 1/2% to help the taxpayers WHOSE Tax dollars are used to make up that budget.

Why aren't Democratic Senators suggesting this on the floor?


UPDATE: For got to add the wiki page link I got this info from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

[TexasTowelie]

1. Your math is incorrect.

1/2 percent of $611 billion is only a slight bit over $3 billion. That is not enough to provide universal health care.

[Catmusicfan]

3. So than how much would it take? is it too stupid of an idea?

[TexasTowelie]

4. When I looked it up it said that the country spends $3.2 trillion per year for health care.

If 10% of the country needs insurance then that would take about $320 billion per year. That is equal to half of the defense budget--not half of one percent. I suspect that the actual uninsured rate is closer to 15% and that for those that are insured there still are other expenses related to meeting deductibles and procedures not covered by insurance. A decent guess would be about $500 or $600 billion which is nearly the entire defense budget. In addition, a portion of the U.S. defense budget is for VA benefits so shifting money out of the defense budget would leave those veterans without health care. Those benefits are a major recruitment incentive for an all volunteer military.

Do we spend too much on the military? My answer would be yes. Would I want to leave the country defenseless and vulnerable to attack, particularly when considering the Russian interference in our elections? My answer would be no. Would I want to deny veterans the benefits that are part of the contract that they signed when they joined the military? Again, my answer would be no.

While your goal is noble, we need to approach the issue with realistic numbers (more reliable than the guesses I provided in the first paragraph).

[Catmusicfan]

6. But how does Universal healthcare work in Canada? Their taxes our the same as ours?

[leftstreet]

7. US healthcare is expensive because of profits

[Catmusicfan]

9. Not if we make Universal Healthcare covered by Medicare.

We shouldn't allow us to be profit or commerce for a business. Let the health companies make money by offering packages like in other European countries. To bump people into Private Richie hospitals or provide plastic surgery coverage. I am tired of being a product for Corporate America.

[TexasTowelie]

8. No, there are differences in the two tax systems.

The tax rates in Canada are usually higher than in the United States. In Canada, tax revenue makes up 38.4 percent of the GDP, while in the United States, the tax revenue makes up 28.2 percent. This is largely due to the differences in the way each government spends money.

One of the biggest differences is the way each government funds health care. In Canada, the government covers the basic health-care expenses of all of its citizens and lawful resident aliens though the Medicare program. The more specialized types of health care, such as dentistry, are either partially covered by the government or not covered at all (depending on the procedure in question). In total, the Canadian government covers up to 70 percent of all health-care expenses per year. By contrast, the United States covers the medical expenses of only the elderly and the poor through the Medicare and Medicaid programs, respectively. Overall, it covers up to 50 percent of their medical costs.

Note that, although the Canadian government's health spending leads to larger taxes, Canadian taxpayers don't have to spend as much on health care as their American counterparts. This doesn't quite negate the increased tax burden, but it does make it easier to bear.

http://www.finweb.com/taxes/5-differences-between-taxation-in-canada-and-america.html

[lostnfound]

5. Last year the US spent $3.2 Trillion on healthcare. But it might take only an extra $150 M or so

The ACA raised taxes on the wealthy by about $250 billion, and that got us about halfway to full insurance (16% uninsured dropped to about 8%).

If we had single payer, we are probably already paying enough. Just need to change how it is spent.

[Catmusicfan]

10. Medicare for all.

[logosoco]

2. My friends/family and I have been saying this since the Ronny Reagan days.

It seems like it is common sense, but the MIC does not like it at all.

It would also be nice to see them take another tiny percentage and give that to the folks serving and doing the actual work. Most of the budget goes toward over priced planes and the stuff that makes the money for the defense contractors.

It would be nice to make that part of the Democratic platform, but I guess they worry it would hurt their popularity.

[roamer65]

11. Canada has the GST, a national goods and services tax.

Also, provincial sales taxes and most of the provinces also have a progressive income tax.

If I remember right, the harmonized GST and provincial sales tax in Ontario is about 13 percent.