Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumEconomists: Every family basically pays $8000 'poll tax' under current US health system.
Working families will soon realize that those scaring them by insisting they will pay more with a single payer system are not being square with them in the primary debates over the future of the healthcare system.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/every-american-family-basically-pays-an-8000-poll-tax-under-the-u-s-health-system-top-economists-say/?
Every American family basically pays an $8,000 poll tax under the U.S. health system, top economists say
AN DIEGO The United States sky-high health-care costs are so far above what people pay in other countries that they are the equivalent of a hefty tax, Princeton University economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton say. They are surprised Americans arent revolting against these taxes.
A few people are getting very rich at the expense of the rest of us, Case said at conference in San Diego on Saturday. The U.S. health-care system is like a tribute to a foreign power, but were doing it to ourselves.
The U.S. health-care system is the most expensive in the world, costing about $1 trillion more per year than the next-most-expensive system Switzerlands. That means U.S. households pay an extra $8,000 per year, compared with what Swiss families pay. Case and Deaton view this extra cost as a poll tax, meaning it is levied on every individual regardless of ability to pay. (Most Americans think of a poll tax as money people once had to pay to register to vote, but polle was an archaic German word for head. The idea behind a poll tax is that it falls on every head.)
Despite paying $8,000 more a year than anyone else, American families do not have better health outcomes, the economists argue. Life expectancy in the United States is lower than in Europe.
We can brag we have the most expensive health care. We can also now brag that it delivers the worst health of any rich country, Case said.
Case and Deaton, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, made the critical remarks about U.S. health care during a talk at the American Economic Associations annual meeting, where thousands of economists gather to discuss the health of the U.S. economy and their latest research on whats working and whats not.
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poll tax
/ˈpōl ˌtaks/
noun
a tax levied on every adult, without reference to income or resources.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)Medicare for All would be.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
George II
(67,782 posts)...of the history of that term in the South.
Plus, it's totally incorrect, too.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
blm
(113,094 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
brooklynite
(94,737 posts)Nobody has receive an $8,000 bill for thei health care. But they would have an additional $8,000 Ill as part of their income tax...until Bernie explains how hell cover the cost alternatively.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
blm
(113,094 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden