Ways to Pay for Universal Healthcare

Healthcare is important to individuals all over the world. Whether rich or poor, it is important for people to know they are covered in case something series was to happen to either themselves or a loved one. One of the biggest issues regarding health care, however, is how to go about paying for it. Throughout the world, there are several different methods to go about paying for universal healthcare, each with its own pros and cons.

Use a single-payer plan. The single-payer plan to pay for health care refers to the federal government paying for it. The money would come from taxes. There are a few different ways to move the money around if you wanted to use the single-payer plan. First you would have to raise taxes. Either on the entire population or on a specific tax bracket (typically the highest-earning bracket). Or you could take money from other programs (or completely cancel them) and put it into the health care system. Neither option may be popular because people generally don't like higher taxes and they won't want their programs cut either. Countries that use this form of health care are Canada, Cuba and North Korea

Adapting the multi-payer health care payment plan is another way to go about paying for the plan. This plan is extremely similar to the single-payer plan; however, individuals will have a choice between if they want the national health-care package or their own insurance company's plan (in single-payer you would be stuck with the government's plan). You would still pay taxes on the plan, although it generally wouldn't be as much because there would be those individuals who opt out and use their own insurance. However, it is still up for debate if those taxpayers who don't use the government's system would still pay taxes on it. Countries that use this scheme include the U.K, France, Japan, Belgium and Germany (among others).

Employing a tax-credit system is another form of health care that has been floating around a bit in Washington these days. In the tax-credit program, those who are uninsured would receive a tax credit discount in their taxes to use towards paying for health care. Whether this would actually work or not is also up for debate. Just because the individual receives the extra money back to use for insurance does not mean they would be forced to do so. They may just end up keeping the money and using it for something else.