Could be worse. You could be in Canada and have to wait and it not cost anything out of pocket. Oh right, that's better.
And the best thing is that he could wait at home. And in 8 months he'd get the call that he's ready or to be seen. Nevermind the fact he'd have already paid for himself and 1000 freeloaders 10x over with the 50% income tax and 13% sales tax. But hey, at least health care is "free", right?
I am pretty sure the income tax doesn't even approach 50 %. Do you have a link? Do provincial sales taxes pay for health care? I don't believe they do, which is why they range from 5 to 15 %. I'm sure the latex gloves the doctor puts on for Card are actually hundreds of dollars a box, and that he isn't being charged a markup to make up for lost revenue from others anyway.
top bracket federal bracket is 29% hit at 136k. Add in an average of about 13% after 65k per province (except Alberta which is a 10% across the board. Craziness to charge people the same relative amount! Alberta must be full of savages). http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/fq/txrts-eng.html GST is 5%. I'm guessing that goes somewhat towards health care. PST is going to be 6-8%. A total of 11-13%. Does it matter if it goes towards health care? You're still paying it, are you not? But you're right. Taxes aren't that high.
So what you are saying is the income tax rate isn't 50 % and that no, the sales tax has nothing to do with health care. Cool.
My original estimate was off, but you said it doesn't approach 50%. It does. Never said sales tax had nothing to do with it. Said I don't know if it does. I'm sure some if goes to the medical freeloaders, but I haven't come across Canada's tax appropriation records. But I'll I'm be sure to let you know if I ever do come across them.
If you think it approaches 50%, then so does the US. Sales tax is provincial, so it is a good bet it isn't a significant part of national health care funding.
In Tennessee we do not pay an income tax, and for that we get to pay some of the highest hidden taxes in the nation. Gasoline, tobacco, alcohol, excise on tires, etc. plus one of the higher sales taxes. Our property taxes have increased markedly over the past ten years. My tax value has increase 63% since I purchased this house 24 years ago. But we don't pay income tax, aren't we lucky?