Editing Socialized medicine (section)

===Taxation===
Opponents claim that socialized medicine would require higher taxes but international comparisons do not support this; the ratio of public to private spending on health is lower in the U.S. than that of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, or any EU country, yet the per capita tax funding of health in those countries is already lower than that of the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_20072008_EN_Indicator_tables.pdf |title=Human Development Report 2007/8 |date=January 2008 |access-date=March 11, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226204118/http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr_20072008_en_indicator_tables.pdf |archive-date=February 26, 2008 }} UN Human Development Report 2007/2008 Table 6 Page 247</ref>

Taxation is not necessarily an unpopular form of funding for health care. In England, a survey for the [[British Medical Association]] of the general public showed overwhelming support for the tax funding of health care. Nine out of ten people agreed or strongly agreed with a statement that the NHS should be funded from taxation with care being free at the point of use.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/PDFnhssystreform2007/$FILE/48751Surveynhsreform.pdf |title=Survey of the general public's views on NHS system reform in England |access-date=March 31, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227150902/http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/PDFnhssystreform2007/%24FILE/48751Surveynhsreform.pdf |archive-date=February 27, 2008 |website=BMA |date=June 2007}}</ref>

An [[opinion piece]] in ''The Wall Street Journal'' by two conservative Republicans argues that government sponsored health care will legitimatize support for government services generally, and make an activist government acceptable. "Once a large number of citizens get their health care from the state, it dramatically alters their attachment to government. Every time a tax cut is proposed, the guardians of the new medical-welfare state will argue that tax cuts would come at the expense of health care -- an argument that would resonate with middle-class families entirely dependent on the government for access to doctors and hospitals."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123207075026188601 |title=Beware of the Big-Government Tipping Point |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180120205305/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123207075026188601 |archive-date=January 20, 2018 |url-status=live |author1=Peter Wehner |author1-link=Peter Wehner |author2=Paul Ryan |author2-link=Paul Ryan |newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |date=January 16, 2009}}</ref>