Originally Posted by mmonroe

As of July 2007, the US population was 301,139,947
An estimate as of 2006 places the unemployment rate at 4.8%

Just to work a few numbers, if the population is 301,139,947, and take it as a family of four, half work, the other half students, and add in working grandparents, and minus the unemployment rate, i'll say that 68% of the population is working. With that number [204,775,164] working in the US, with a static tax of $5 a month [$2.50 a paycheck per two weeks] would be $1,023,875,820 a month towards health care, and $12,286,509,840 annually. Now, I don't have numbers on the amount of the health care deficit or anything, but a little over 12 billion dollars a year in tax money doesn't seem that bad to help it.