Through my conversations with people over the internet I still see Americans with persistent misconceptions about their health care system and about their tax system. So here are the misconceptions that I here most often and the truth about those misconceptions:
1.) The Myth: If we have single payer health care all of the advertising jobs and insurance companies go away.
The Truth: Most countries that have single payer health care also have insurance companies. Canada is the exception and not the rule. The difference is that the insurance companies are not allowed to make life and death choices and that they are regulated. They compete on what I consider perks. Who can provide the shortest waiting time, private hospital rooms etc.
2.) The Myth: There is not enough support for universal health care in America.
The Truth: Actually universal health care has outrageous support.
69% say that it is the government’s job to provide health care to everyone.
76% say that health care is more important than a tax cut .
60% say they would pay higher taxes to get health insurance and of those 82% say they are willing to pay $500 more in taxes for universal health care. http://mediamatters.org/...
3.) The Myth: We would have much higher taxes if we had single payer health care.
The Truth: Check out this list of numbers http://www.parl.gc.ca/...
The Canadian tax rate is 14% and the American is 10% for families with children and it is the same 24-25% for families without children. But consider that when you compare these two you have to add the cost of your health care and the cost of college for your children to your tax burden and then compare the two countries. When you do that we do not compare at all favorably.
Additionally the government in Canada is not in as much debt. That means that our taxes are low because we are putting the benefits we normally get from tax revenue on our kid’s "credit card".
Even Sweden with its huge social safety network only pays 24% income tax on average. And you should see what the Swedes get for that money! It is money well spent. They have better lives for it than we do. Ireland, Japan and the UK, all of which have universal health care, and have lower average taxes than the US!
It might interest you to know that Americans spend 2-3 times what our counterparts spend per person for health care. Switching to this system would save us about $3000 per person. Check out: Yes Mag Article and Yes Mag Graphic
Keep in mind that other countries insure everyone and have better care. In France you can have a house call day or night. In Germany you can get a month at a spa paid for every few years. In Denmark you can get a personal trainer to help you at the government paid for gym. All of these countries are improving the health of their citizens compared to the US and thus are paying less for health care as the years go by.
4.) The Myth: Drug companies have to charge so much for drugs because they had to invest in the research.
The Truth: The tax payers pay for much of the drug research through the NIH. Once a drug is developed the rules say that the NIH must then give the drug to a company to be produced and sold back to the tax payers. We are paying for the drugs at both ends.