National sales tax to pay for health care

This often virulent health care debate has been continuously framed in terms of the individual loss of present health care and the potential costliness of a government option.

No one talks about the cost to American industry and the competitive drag caused by their need to fund national health care, a cost their foreign competitors with government national health care do not have.

Every year my employer pays $9,167 toward my health insurance cost while I pay an additional $4,141 in premiums, not including deductibles and co-pays. That's a total of $13,307 every year just toward premiums.

Similar costs for every employed worker are factored into the price of every American good sold in the United States and abroad, making American goods and services more expensive and less competitive. American businesses, both large and small, foot the cost of the insured, uninsured and underinsured.

We need a national health care system funded by a small national sales tax, with the availability of a private supplement for those wanting more than the average American.

Why a national sales tax? Everyone pays a sales tax; the underground economy of those not reporting work for cash and the people who hire them, the illegal aliens, those using tax shelters to pay little or no income tax, the drug addicts and the criminal economy. Everyone buys legal goods and services and those using but not paying for health care through their use of "free" services such as emergency rooms and other facilities would contribute to paying for their health care, freeing up American business to do what it does best: efficiently produce world class goods and services and thus jobs, unburdened by funding national health care.

Karen Hale

Sleepy Hollow