Dear Editor:
More on how some other states are addressing single-payer health care.
In 2014 Vermont's Gov. Shumlin (D) was a huge supporter of a single-payer plan for Vermont. He had planned on funding it with an 11.5 percent payroll tax and sliding "premiums" of up to 9.5 percent on individuals' income. He finally admitted that such massive tax increases would hurt Vermont's economy and he dropped support for the plan. Jonathan Gruber helped Shumlin develop the Vermont plan. You might remember Gruber, the Obama administration paid him $400,000 for his assistance with developing the ACA. He is also the one who touted that "lack of transparency" in the ACA and who said ACA developers counted on the "stupidity of the American voter" to get it passed.
New York's Assembly has passed the New York Health Plan every year for the past couple of years but have not been able to get it through the state Senate. Once again it seems that the bill contains no firm method for financing it. Supporters claim that the bill will save $45 billion per year yet one suggestion is that it be funded by an income tax starting at 9 percent for income over $25,000 and sliding up to 16 percent for incomes of $200,000 and above.
Colorado voters used a ballot initiative put a proposed amendment on their Nov 2016 ballot. The amendment would have authorized raising taxes by $25 billion (an average of $4,500 for every person in Colorado) to provide health care for all residents of Colorado. It was soundly defeated.
So far it seems that the majority of voters only want a single-payer plan if they can get someone else (more debt on future generations) to provide them with a freeby.
If Missouri chose to pass a single-payer bill and it only cost $4,500 per resident, similar to Colorado's estimate, rather than the $10,000 per resident estimated cost of California's plan, it would cost us around $27 billion per year. In FY2016 Missouri collected $6.1 billion in individual income taxes and $2.0 billion from sales and use taxes.