Socialised Healthcare

[Patashu]

the tax burden will be lower then it would if you were getting private insurance, for a couple of reasons:
1. government provided healthcare is not a for-profit service, so slash off the 30% or more overhead for administrative costs dedicated to squeezing more money out of the venture
2. progressive taxes tax the poor less and the rich more, so if you're at a level where catastrophic illness would seriously endanger your life you're probably not needing to pay much towards it
3. because the country will now be able to better handle healthcare issues without fear of going bankrupt or into debt or being denied coverage they will be healthier, more economically mobile and better able to hold down jobs; thus, there will be more of an ability to make wealth go around.

It's one of those community social cohesion things. When one member of the community is down, use a bit of everyone else's productivity to help him back up; as long as you do this for everyone, everyone will remain productive and it will pay itself off.

You say you can take care of yourself? It's okay, you don't need to prove you're a big strong tough man to us. Some diseases and injuries are MUCH tougher than you are, and you can't just pull up your bootstraps and get over it; if you're not getting taken care of for the duration and can't be confident you'll have money and a job when you recover, you're pretty much screwed.