Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019
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We need to stop calling these things free and call them tax payer funded.
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@Dashrender said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
You know this doesn't exist anywhere - right? If it's free - it's paid by taxes.. Now that said - I have no clue what the actual typical tax rate is in Europe say compared to the USA ( I know that my tax rate between state and Fed is around 17% - that doesn't seem right, but this is based on my actual pay, not the post standard deductions pay, which would clearly be much higher.
Thanks you captain obvious. I'm happy to pay higher taxes if it means I can get proper medical care without being presented with a huge bill. I've actually given up on additional paid medical insurance 6 months ago, and the level at which I get medical coverage did not decrease, beyond nice perks, like a few hundred $ per year in massages, physio and new eyeglasses every 2 years. I still pay 0 for covered meds, 0 for children's dental care etc. It could be better, but I'm not here to be sick on someone else's account
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@scottalanmiller said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
Cars SHOULD be priced off of the road.
You've lived in some pretty sparsely populated parts of the country. What would public transport cost in Piffard, NY? I think cars would like a cheap and reasonable alternative to busses running down all the country back roads every hour.
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@Mike-Davis it's all about having a balanced system (note, I'm not saying fair, just balanced). If the tax rate isn't murderous, and that provides me with healthcare I don't get an extra bill for, that works for me. Just like paying car insurance that isn't insanely expensive, and in case of an accident, being covered instead of going out on a limb. In Canada these things are more or less balanced. Again, not perfect, but well balanced enough for me to feel comfortable with.
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@Dashrender said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
I know that my tax rate between state and Fed is around 17% - that doesn't seem right, but this is based on my actual pay, not the post standard deductions pay, which would clearly be much higher.
According to H&R Block my tax rate for 2018 was like 12% calculated after deductions and crap.
But those numbers do not account for my portion of health and dental insurance premiums, etc.
So I consider my "tax" rate higher. -
I like the Dutch system of health care vouchers. It gives everyone coverage, but is competitive because private companies compete for the voucher money.
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@Mike-Davis said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
I like the Dutch system of health care vouchers. It gives everyone coverage, but is competitive because private companies compete for the voucher money.
I may be too American, but I refuse to believe that privatized healthcare can ever actually be valid.
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Doesn't matter how much or how little you pay in taxes when a major medical problem will guarantee you go bankrupt in the US. All that money you saved on taxes goes out the window, plus your house, your truck, and your savings.
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I fully expect my savings to be gone by the time I die. My wife has MD. Nuff said.
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@Mike-Davis said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
I like the Dutch system of health care vouchers. It gives everyone coverage, but is competitive because private companies compete for the voucher money.
It's like that in Israel - there are several private companies competing for customers, each has hospitals and clinics and whatnot. They aren't paid by the customers though, but by the portion of health taxes collected, relevant to their portion of the overall taxpaying population. If they want people subscribing to them, they have to provide good service, so there's healthy competition, and yet as a patient, I'm not paying any premiums, it's all in the tax. The only problem is, in Israel the taxes are insanely high (I was paying 56%) and could be much lower, but the system itself seems to work very well
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@JaredBusch said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
I may be too American, but I refuse to believe that privatized healthcare can ever actually be valid.
Talk to someone who has experienced the VA for healthcare. You will then get an idea of what government healthcare looks like. It isn't always pretty.
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@scottalanmiller said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
In the US my tax rate was 52%, that's higher than Finland, and the healthcare coverage was abysmal.
I thought Texas had no personal income tax and the highest federal rate is 37%. How do you figure 52%?
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@Mike-Davis he might be factoring in property tax and sales tax.
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@JaredBusch said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
@Mike-Davis said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
I like the Dutch system of health care vouchers. It gives everyone coverage, but is competitive because private companies compete for the voucher money.
I may be too American, but I refuse to believe that privatized healthcare can ever actually be valid.
help me understand what you mean. America is basically all private healthcare - not saying that it's valid though.
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@Nic said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
Doesn't matter how much or how little you pay in taxes when a major medical problem will guarantee you go bankrupt in the US. All that money you saved on taxes goes out the window, plus your house, your truck, and your savings.
I know Scott believes in the public healthcare solution - I just have a hard time paying for everyone else's lack of giving a shit about their health that leads to huge health care costs. if we could hold people accountable for their expenses (not counting things like accidents against them) I think that would make me 'feel' better.
I see the value in some public services - law enforcement/roads/national defense, but I still have a hard time seeing public healthcare as a public good.
I suppose if there is proof that public healthcare raises the quality of life of it's citizens more than it costs those citizen, that would go a long way to convincing me.
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@dyasny said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
@Mike-Davis said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
I like the Dutch system of health care vouchers. It gives everyone coverage, but is competitive because private companies compete for the voucher money.
It's like that in Israel - there are several private companies competing for customers, each has hospitals and clinics and whatnot. They aren't paid by the customers though, but by the portion of health taxes collected, relevant to their portion of the overall taxpaying population. If they want people subscribing to them, they have to provide good service, so there's healthy competition, and yet as a patient, I'm not paying any premiums, it's all in the tax. The only problem is, in Israel the taxes are insanely high (I was paying 56%) and could be much lower, but the system itself seems to work very well
Clearly it doesn't though - taxes are to high - likely due to corruption.
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@Dashrender said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
Clearly it doesn't though - taxes are to high - likely due to corruption.
Here we go again. I'm not talking about how high the taxes are, I'm talking about how a combination of taxes and private companies can create healthy competition, while keeping healthcare at a good level and easily accessible.
This is what it looks like:
Under Israel’s health care system, all citizens are entitled to basic medical services. The costs are covered mainly by a national health tax: Wage-earners and self-employed individuals pay 3.1 percent of their monthly salary up to 5,804 shekels (about $1,600), and 5 percent on everything earned beyond that. Women who do not work outside the home are exempt, while students, retirees and others who do not earn a fixed salary are required to pay a small fee of about $25 a month in exchange for coverage. All children are covered free of charge through the army.
In addition, Israelis pay very small co-pays for visits to the doctor and most medicines.
Services are provided through four main health maintenance organizations, known in Israel as kupot holim, which compete for patients. Beyond the basic government-guaranteed services, the HMOs also offer enhanced insurance plans for additional fees.
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@dyasny said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
I'm talking about how a combination of taxes and private companies can create healthy competition, while keeping healthcare at a good level and easily accessible.
That's the key to finding the balance.
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@Dashrender said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
@Nic said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
Doesn't matter how much or how little you pay in taxes when a major medical problem will guarantee you go bankrupt in the US. All that money you saved on taxes goes out the window, plus your house, your truck, and your savings.
I know Scott believes in the public healthcare solution - I just have a hard time paying for everyone else's lack of giving a shit about their health that leads to huge health care costs. if we could hold people accountable for their expenses (not counting things like accidents against them) I think that would make me 'feel' better.
I see the value in some public services - law enforcement/roads/national defense, but I still have a hard time seeing public healthcare as a public good.
I suppose if there is proof that public healthcare raises the quality of life of it's citizens more than it costs those citizen, that would go a long way to convincing me.
I understand the reasoning, but in practice US pays more for worse health outcomes overall:
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/#item-u-s-similar-public-spending-private-sector-spending-triple-comparable-countriesIn practice the savings of getting rid of the bureaucracy and milking by execs is vastly more than the cost from people going to the doctor more.
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@Dashrender said in Top Ten Happiest Places on Earth in 2019:
I know Scott believes in the public healthcare solution - I just have a hard time paying for everyone else's lack of giving a shit about their health that leads to huge health care costs.
Do people with unhealthy life styles end up having higher health care costs though? Compare an obese, heavy-drinking smoker - he could well die from a heart attack/stroke without ever going to the doctor, whilst a super-health person could live to 100 but require 20 years of expensive age related costs (dementia, physical frailty). I'm sure there have been studies on this.
Also, in Europe, this is somewhat mitigated against by putting heavy taxes on alcohol and tobacco, so unhealthy people indirectly fund their extra medical care.
Anyway, in the US, aren't you still subsidising unhealthy, don't give a shit, people as that's the nature of insurance? You're just paying private insurance rather than public insurance.
