he/him

  • 2 Posts
  • 3 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: July 23rd, 2023
  • Ace@feddit.uktoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•How much do Americans actually pay for healthcare?
    6·
    3 months ago

    You as a Brit spend $5,500

    Eh, on average that may be true. But most people pay far less than that. The NHS’s budget is £153bn, and the government raises £950bn in revenue. Of the 950bn, around 25% is from income tax.

    So by that logic, the amount of my income tax that goes to the NHS is about 0.25*153/950 = 4.0%. Last year I paid £6644 in income tax, so that’s about £265 to the NHS. I’m not counting National Insurance as those contributions are not for the NHS.

    VAT is also 15% of government revenue, so if I wildly guess that I bought £10k worth of “stuff” last year then that’s £2000 in VAT (@ 20% - it’s not all necessarily 20% but to simplify), of which £300 went to the NHS.

    So I’m still not even paying £600/year. There are some other small contributions that you could count, but it’s not going to make much difference to the final figure. I’m far from rich but I’m more well-off than most people, so the majority of citizens are paying less than me.

    What I’m saying is, for most citizens we actually pay relatively little and get huge value out of the NHS. The rich pay proportionally a lot more, which is how it should be.