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People could contribute premiums the same as if it was income tax.

In other words, what says that universal health care in America needs to be provided by congress? Couldn't another country beat them to it, and save American lives at the same in the process?

BigDataLouie
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  • Do you mean while the person is within the country, or while they are within the US? – origimbo May 23 '17 at 22:05
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    If you're willing to pay Canadian insurance premiums on top of your US taxes and have the funds to travel to Canada for medical care, you can probably afford a private insurance plan in America. – JonathanReez May 23 '17 at 22:06
  • @origimbo see edits – BigDataLouie May 23 '17 at 22:09
  • @JonathanReez Americans with coverage already pay premiums for that coverage. In this hypothetical, the funds go toward another health care system instead of an American insurance company. Americans don't need to travel for health care, given that the issue is coverage not a lack of hospitals. – BigDataLouie May 23 '17 at 22:10
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    I'm pretty sure all "why don't.." are a bad fit for this site. Also this is silly. –  May 23 '17 at 22:36
  • There are a lot of reasons. 1) It would be a legal nightmare -- how would US providers agree to accept a foreign government's terms? It would require legislation in both countries, which seems impossible in the US. 2) If a country wanted to provide aid, they would probably be more generous to countries less wealthy than the US. 3) If it was economically feasible and beneficial to a government to act as, essentially, an insurance exchange for foreigners, then an NGO would beat them to it. 4) A foreign government would not tolerate paying for the high costs of US healthcare. – RaceYouAnytime May 23 '17 at 23:23
  • @BigDataLouis The lack of hospitals, medical professionals, etc. is an issue with coverage. The limited supply, relative to the demand, is what causes the elevated costs, even before you get to the additional layers of bureaucracy. Recommend you perform more research to extend the context of this question. – Drunk Cynic May 24 '17 at 00:50
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    Better and related question, why don't liberals just move to Canada? –  May 24 '17 at 12:22
  • Perhaps you're missing the fact that universal health care is, by definition, universal. No opt in system can ever be universal health care. – David Schwartz Oct 30 '17 at 22:11

1 Answers1

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It wouldn't work because only people who would have negative contributions would join.

For universal health care to work the cost of the care must be spread out among everyone. According to a WHO paper on universal health care:

A key element of financing for universal health coverage is sharing resources to spread the financial risks of ill-health across the population.

Canada nor any other country can force Americans to join their universal health care so people would need to join voluntarily.

The Americans who earn enough to fund the universal health care system won't join. They can already afford health insurance in America and their premiums would only go up by switching because they are needed to fund those who can't afford it.

This would result in only Americans who can't afford insurance joining and Canadians paying more to cover them. It would be a great deal for the Americans but a terrible deal for Canada.

JonK
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  • "The Americans who earn enough to fund the universal health care system won't join" = that's speculation. There are a lot of people that would be more than willing to pitch in for a universal system. Granted, it doesn't make any sense in the context of this question, but to say "only poor/sick people want a single payer system" is simply not true. –  May 24 '17 at 02:59
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    @blip I didn't say only sick and poor people want a single payer system. I said many people who are needed​ to fund it won't voluntarily switch which puts additional pressure on either the Canadians, which makes it less popular, or on the Americans, which makes even fewer willing to switch. – JonK May 24 '17 at 03:05
  • @blip I'll add a source for that tomorrow. I thought it was a pretty uncontroversial statement that many Americans don't want a single payer system and thus wouldn't voluntarily switch to one. – JonK May 24 '17 at 03:06
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    You're not wrong...many don't want a single payer system. But at the same time, many do. –  May 24 '17 at 04:16