But the actual numbers don't lie, Europeans on average pay less for healthcare (combined taxes + paid procedures), than Americans, yet we have an access to public healthcare and Americans need to buy priv insurance.
I'd rather pay my taxes, then hear stories of people who are afraid to call an ambulance in case they are actually not going through a heart attack.
That's besides my point, which is that you can't just tax the rich to pay for universal healthcare. It has to come out of everyone's paycheck.
The other side of the coin is that Europeans earn less and that healthcare workers especially earn less. Yet, systems such as the NHS are at the brink of financial collapse.
You couldn't achieve the same "savings" in the US without massive forced wage cuts to health care workers.
> I'd rather pay my taxes...
That's a fair opinion to have. Saying that you'd rather "tax the rich" isn't, it's dishonest (or uninformed).
The reason for this is the Tories are defunding it and taking stabs at it. So that NHS becomes unpopular with public and could be privatized into US style healthcare.
Its straight out of neo-liberal playbook, de-fund/cripple public institution, replace management with 'your' people who further japerdise the institution. Start PR campaign against institution to ridicule it and when people buy the PR, cut it up and sell it off.
Oh the wonders of different systems and economies.
I don't know where you got that fact,
according to OECD for 2016 Korea spends as much as Ireland on healthcare (GDP share).
That's also the first time I heard it.