But again, we would have to raise taxes to do so. The top marginal income tax rate in countries in which similar social programs have been implemented can be as much as 60%, not including VAT, estate taxes in Denmark, 42% tax on capital gains, etc.
That's correlation and not causation. Countries that have 'similar social programs' are basically just rich Scandinavian countries that have hugely high tax-rates that pay for expensive social programs all across the board. We do not have to raise the highest marginal tax rate by 20 points to pay for universal health care.
These ludicrous tax rates are what they have to charge to subsidize their social probrams while spending very little on defense. Seeing as all Scandinavian countries with the exception of Norway spend next to nothing on defense, they instead rely largely on the US and NATO to defend them should they be threatened. We can't just stop paying our defense budget, so odds are we would pay similar rates or higher should we adopt similar programs.
This is a slippery-slope that does not describe reality. There are insurmountable differences between the United States and Sweden that prevent us from becoming just like them.
Plus like, defense spending is relative. Sweden isn't 'gaming the system'. For instance, China spends ~2% of its GDP on defense, while Sweden spends 1.1%. The actual amount spent is much different, but the contexts of both nations make it seem a lot more reasonable.
The US government also can't even run the VA properly, so what leads you to believe that running a healthcare system that exponentially greater in scale would be manageable for them?
Or Venezuela, they're a good example as well.
Again, I don't think you actually know what ACA does. ACA does not run hospitals, it doesn't employ doctors, and it doesn't have any impact on how privately-run hospitals work. The problems with the VA hospitals are completely irrelevant because the ACA doesn't regulate hospitals.
Also, why are you bringing up Venezuela? Their economic crCIA is 100% because of plummeting oil prices. There is not a single economist out there who will credit universal healthcare as the cause.
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