"Well, name your country. The chances are that you pay less in taxes to provide public healthcare. "
I live in Finland. From my ~5000 Eur monthly wage I pay 29 percent tax and them some 6 percent for unemployment coverage etc.
So here's the figures for government healthcare spending (these are from 2005, I happened to have them handy):
Finland: Per capita government expenditure on health at average exchange rate (US$) 2196.0
U.S: Per capita government expenditure on health at average exchange rate (US$) 2862.0
The U.S. government is spending, on average, ~$700 more on healthcare per capita. This means that the U.S. government is taxing more per capita to pay for it. And yet for all this spending, most Americans are not eligible to receive government healthcare, so they have to pay again for private insurance. Which doesn't actually cover their medical bills, so they have to pay again for co-pay in the case that they actually get ill.
But forget the private fees they have to pay for the moment, and look at this one singular fact. Americans are paying more
in taxes to pretend that they have a capitalist system (which they don't, and which doesn't work) than you are paying in taxes for socialized medicine.
Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.