jtdavis posted:It would take a (gasp) tax increase.
Jt, it would probably need the mother of all tax increases. Take California where they have much higher incomes:
The latest stop on progressives’ magical wish tour for a single-payer health care plan is California, where U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, has been campaigning on behalf of a proposed state-run, single-payer system. This week, state lawmakers in Sacramento got their first look at the price tag for the proposal: $400 billion annually.
At that price, even after accounting for an estimated $200 billion that could be saved by replacing current state-run health programs with the single-payer program, Californians would still need to come up with another $200 billion annually to fund the system.
This year’s entire state budget in California is about $180 billion, which means implementing a single-payer health care system would require doubling (at least) the state’s current tax burden. The analysis of the health care proposal presented to lawmakers suggests a 15 percent increase to the state’s payroll tax to provide the necessary revenue.
http://www.ocregister.com/2017...assive-tax-increase/
Now consider low income states like Mississippi or places with a high number of underemployed poor folks like the rust belt or inner cities. The amount of taxes needed would be astronomical to cover everyone.