According to Michael Moore's "Sicko" documentary film, the difference in tax paying between the British and the American is really not that controversial.
I am willing to pay higher taxes for more RELEVANT services that support all people regardless of class, race, religion, etc. The vital problem are the components in our tax. We spend way too much on military spending. We can easily cut half of that, and transfer it over to free medical care for all. We do not need 800+ military bases outside of the United States, illegal wars and drone bombing innocent Middle Eastern people. Terrorism and national security are nothing but excuses. The United States Foreign Policy, for decades, is one of the biggest terrorist organizations (directly and indirectly) in the world. We fund terrorist organizations with money and military weapons (indirectly). And our drone bombs, bombing other nations like Panama, Vietnam and Iraq, and let us not forget the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic bombs (directly).

What I am in favor of is a flat income tax-straight percentage and stop allowing loopholes for the wealthy. I have heard people say 10% flat tax-I am not even sure it would have to be that high if they just went straight across the board everyone pays a flat percentage on what they make.
That would make the wealthiest pay a fairer share

India is ridden with so much poverty and economy is real bad but even than in India you can get a heart transplant for real cheap,because health services are highly subsidized.
I can't understand ,USA has a solid economy and is considered most powerful and influential country in the world,and Americans keep complaining about expensive health services.

OP except you dont really know how long you would wait for your operation maybe half a year? Maybe 2 years?

My father would be dead right now if he didn't have UK private medical insurance. He had pneumonia and the best the NHS could offer was a hospital bed in 3 weeks. With his insurance I had him admitted to a private hospital within 24 hours. His consultant there said that he probably wouldn't have survived if we'd waited even a day longer for hospital treatment.

The NHS isn't anything to be proud of, it's actually a complete joke. Me and my wife have had such a poor treatment from this service and so has a huge number of the population. They treat you like a number, one in, one out, there is absolutely no empathy or in-depth welfare with the patient at all! I've had to seek private treatment for a lot of things and pay for it obviously, so it's the services that cost that give you a far better response.

This is the key to the NHS that the service provided is available to everyone free of charge, without discrimination on any grounds (including finance, insurance, etc).
Basically if the service is available then it is available FREE.
It is in fact acute cases like the one in this film that are the NHS's finest hour

Why would we be jealous? We have people from other countries come here for surgery I'd rather pay for what I and/or my family uses then for some hypochondriac uses. We were supposed to have Obamacare.that's a freaking joke!!
And if England's health care is so great, then why do most of them have bad teeth?
Free isn't always a good thing IMO.
Taxes are incredibly high over herepaying for stuff we don't need or use a lot of times!! If you don't live in the US, or use our health system, how can you say that it's a bad system just off of one movie
I like the concept of what someone posted about France. Health care is based on what you pay.
On that movie, what's so disgusting is how the hospital acts towards them than how America's health system is. It's a good movie but inaccurate as to how the health care system is here in the US. What I DO NOT like about our h/care system is we will pay for "anchor babies", illegals and people that have never paid into our taxes yet citizens have to pay out the butt for what they have done.

The old fight for freedom speech..

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I'd pay higher taxes for universal healthcare. Taxes are high enough as is but you can't put a tax on life.
"Cool will get ya dead." -Former NBA Power Forward, Karl Malone

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the US is jealous

If you live in a country with a public health service, how can you know how unrealistic this film was? And did you think it was its characters or the film itself that had a "skewed sense of morals"?
I agree that this story was somewhat contrived, and it was quite a bit overacted in places, but it certainly brings attention to a serious problem in our country.
It does not make much sense to pan this film because it emphasizes a problem that your country lacks. It would be like me putting down a film about your television licensing program because the program itself is ridiculous, and then calling you fools for having it. Our health care system has serious flaws, and this film hardly celebrates it. The people who cannot tolerate it are the usually the ones who can do the least about it, and that is one of the points it tries to make.
As to whether we would favor a similar system to yours, that is certainly a controversial and heated issue here and it is becoming more so every day. Ironically, despite being set in Chicago, this film was made entirely in Canada, a country whose health care system is constantly being compared to our own. The Canadians are likely similarly baffled by this film as you are. The film is exaggerated and overacted, but not entirely unrealistic.

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This is a political topic that Western Europeans and Americans will go round and round with for years to come. It is also a very HOT topic in the US right now, being that we just elected a democrat president.
Bottom line..Insurance companies and drug companies will fight tooth and nail to NEVER allow universal health care in the US.quite simple actually!

There is a very good debate going here and I can see both sides. But just to put my side across
I'm British and I for one value our healthcare system. I pay my tax on my wage which is quite small really considering what it pays for and in return I get free healthcare and no worries about if I can afford to get my son an xray.
My Son actually recently needed a trip to A&E (ER), from booking in, seeing the triage nurse, the Doctor, then xray, then back to the Doctor and then the treatment room for bandages and the pharmacy for the free prescription we were in and out in 1hr and 20mins. I think for the amount I pay in my wage that's bloody good value. Me and my family have always had exceptionally good service and I haven't got a single complaint about the NHS, they've treated me well and within perfectly reasonable waiting list times.
I have some friends in America (all over so not sure if prices vary) and we were discussing it one night and what I was paying in my tax was less than each of them were paying for their family health insurance alone.
I do love the US and would love to live over there (if not just for the sun haha) but I feel safe and happy knowing that if my children or other loved ones needed medical help that I don't have to worry if the insurance will cover it and if it doesn't then how we will fix it.
I don't profess to be an expert of health care systems around the world, but I do know that a price shouldn't be put on anyones life, I hate that insurance companies can turn around and see a certain procedure as "not viable". Don't get me wrong, we have the same problems over here with life saving cancer drugs that only get given via postcode lotteries, and stupid thousands of pounds money wasting ornaments put in the receptions but if I had to choose one system, it would be the NHS any day.

Advocates of socialized health care don't understand basic economics. There will be shortages of a good anytime the price of that good is lower than the market clearing price. In health care, this means people will have to wait for medical service. Here are some waiting times for various medical procedures in Canada (data from the Frasier Institute):
Orthopedics 25 weeks
Gynecology - 13 weeks
Urology 12 weeks
Neurology 17 weeks
Internal Medicine 6 weeks
General Surgery 9 weeks
Cardiovascular Surgery 18 weeks
Who wants to wait 18 weeks for cardiovascular surgery? The ignorant John Q doesn't realize that under socialized health care his son probably would've died before he could have gotten the transplant. The only person more ignorant than John Q is Obama. So am I jealous of any country with socialized health care? No.

A disparity must always exist in order to ensure quality care. Socialized Healthcare has just as many fallouts as Managed care. If you aren't "sick enough" you are denied care. There have been numerous cases of individuals seeking service for something minor, like a bad headache, stomach pains etc and are denied, a few days later they die due to the fact that this "minor" ailment was a indicator of something much more serious.

Quote- "I am proud to live in a country where peoples wealth doesnt determine the value of their life."
Then, please tell me why my father-in-law had to wait seven months for his hip replacement, and the Queen Mother got hers taken care of within three days.

Nope, you can keep it. I have a feeling that it would work just like an extended version of medicaid, and it would send taxes through the roof. I like the ability to chose my doctor and pay for the best if I can.

Sadly, not an uncommon occurrence. Here in Indonesia most (if not all) people judge Western culture from Hollywood movies and tourists (neither of whom show the best sides of Western culture).
Hence, they think we're all gun-toting maniacs who sleep with a different person every night and don't get into committed relationships. Mind you, that may be because the serious movies get lost in translation so we're stuck seeing "Date Movie" and the like.
Then again, Westerners judge Eastern culture in pretty much the same way. No, I've never seen anyone living in a mud hut, no I've never been attacked by a terrorist and no, public schools here are not exclusively Muslim even though Religious Education is a compulsory course.
Googol! Googolplex! . . . I guess that's one way around the 100 Chars limit

yes The USA is