tailieunhanh - Paying For National Health Insurance—And Not Getting It

The loss of the family wage earner can be devastating, both emotionally and financially. Social Security helps by providing income for the families of workers who die. In fact, 98 of every 100 children could get benefits if a working parent dies. And Social Security pays more benefits to children than any other federal program. This booklet gives you an overview of Social Security survivors benefits paid to the spouse and children of a worker who dies. This booklet is not intended to answer all the questions you may have. For more information about Social Security’s survivors program, visit our website. | Health Care Costs Paying For National Health Insurance And Not Getting It Taxes pay for a larger share of . health care than most Americans think they do. by Steffie Woolhandler and David U. Himmelstein ABSTRACT The threat of steep tax hikes has torpedoed the debate over national health insurance. Yet according to our calculations the current tax-financed share of health spending is far higher than most people think percent. This figure which is about fifteen percentage points higher than the official Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMS estimate includes health care-related tax subsidies and public employees health benefits neither of which are classified as public expenditures in the CMS accounting framework. . tax-financed health spending is now the highest in the world. Indeed our tax-financed costs exceed total costs in every nation except Switzerland. But the sub rosa character of much tax-financed health spending in the United States obscures its regressivity. Public spending for care of the poor elderly and disabled is hotly debated and intensely scrutinized. But tax subsidies that accrue mostly to the affluent and health benefits for middle-class government workers are mostly below the radar screen. National health insurance would require smaller tax increases than most people imagine and would make government s role in financing care more visible and explicit. IN a POLITICAL CULTURE characterized by read my lips over my dead body the threat of huge tax increases silences the debate over national health insurance. Never mind that Canadians Australians and Western Europeans spend about half what we do on health care enjoy universal coverage and are healthier. Their taxes to finance health care are higher or are they The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMS pegs the government s share of health spending in the United States at percent 548 billion in 1999 .1 This figure reflects an accounting framework based on who wrote .