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Comment by parineum | Hacker News Reader

If the richest state in the union with some of the highest taxes in the union can't afford universal healthcare, who can?

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I think it could be within the budget, especially considering how much is currently spent by employers, which could be turned into a tax and funneled into "California health care". The bigger issues would be negotiating with medical providers, the hospital systems and multiple levels of US medical bureaucracy. Even then, for example medicare/medicaid, look how much fraud if often found around over paying / unnecessary procedures etc. In my opinion, because of how much traction and jobs exist at multiple levels of pharma to insurance to medicine in the US, I almost think it's an intractable problem, but I wish it wasn't.

The Federal government spends twice as much per person as California so presumably they're in a much better position to afford it.

Why are taxes so high there?

California's budget per person is the 22nd highest among states so it's not like they rake in so much money versus other states. I'm guessing their abysmal property tax law forces them to get tax revenue in other more visible to everyone ways.

They're not, when you consider their very low revenue from property taxes. However, I think it's pretty likely that many people on HN don't own property.

On average, property tax rates are low but property values are very high so it's a wash. They still pull in a lot more per house than many states. Meanwhile California has the highest state income tax rate, with 13.3 percent in the top bracket. Some states have no income tax.

I think people in states like Hawaii and Connecticut might end up being taxed higher overall, but California is certainly near the top of the bunch, not the bottom.

And they are slowly covering more and more of the population with medi-cal. Presumably they want to eliminate the gig economy to make it easier to keep extending it.

Taxes are ridiculously high in California, and amongst the highest in the country. Sales and income taxes more than make up for any savings in property taxes, and now with the SALT deduction changes, it's even worse in CA.

There's just a lot of low-income people here who don't pay taxes which skews the result.

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