Trumpcare Would Leave 22 Million Uninsured But Give The Wealthy $250,000 Tax Break

[Zod95]

Mr Puggsly said:

Zod95 said:

I completely agree with your first 2 sentences. Regarding the 3rd one, stay out of wars and suddenly everything is sustainable.

Make healthcare affordable is not rocket science. Just look at what dozens of countries around the world have done.

Our military budget is very high yet still a fraction of our healthcare, social security and other entitlements spending. Our military budget could be 0% of the budget and we would still spend too much. The US has a spending problem and its not sustainable.

Well some countries pay high taxes for "free" healthcare. But they also have regulations that keep the costs of healthcare down. Canada inpaticular is known for long waits and that's because their healthcare needs more money in a country with already high taxes. So I dunno, its a more complex issue than people treat it. Seems like there are pros and cons no matter what direction we go.

I was talking to a someone younger than me about healthcare recently. He said he wanted a cheap healthcare plan that just covers major problems but doesn't cover the small stuff like checkups or other simple procedures. I had to explain to him that's what Obamacare took away, affordable coverage options that made us shop around for simple stuff. When insurance is expected cover everything, nobody price shops so all procedures get more expensive.

Anything is a fraction of everything else once nothing accounts for more than 50% of the federal budget:

https://media.nationalpriorities.org/uploads/total_spending_pie%2C__2015_enacted.png

Military + Veterans Benefits totals 20%, which is a big chunk of the budget (more than a half of either Social Security or Healthcare). If you shrink that to say 2%, as any non-imperialistic country has, you get 18% so spend elsewhere. Plus, if you create a healthcare-for-all-for-free system as scandinavian countries have, it will cost as much or even less than those 27% you already have today. Social security should be paid by the workers, not the federal government. A fraction of the salaries should be taken to finance pensions and unemployment subsidies. That's another 33% you would save. With those 51% I would increase spending on Education to at least 15% (in order to get equal opportunities for everybody) and increase Energy and Science to at least 3% each. The other 30% would be to pay off debt and decrease in the long term those 6% on interest.

Regarding healthcare, you shouldn't price shop it. You should get everything you need. I live in Portugal and in here healthcare is free. In some cases, you have long waits but when you really need it the system is there to treat you. That's not perfect (and I know there are great inefficiencies) but in my opinion it's much better than in the USA.