  How will transfering part or the whole of the burden to the taxpayer help?    I do not think there's such a thing as free or cheap healthcare. You might be a little over-optimistic here.  Anyway, I'd ideally want a flexible system that adopts whatever works best.  It's misleading when people say tax-funded things are free.    Think of public school: most people couldn't pay for private school tuition for 13 years, especially for multiple kids. Public school has its flaws, but it's valuable for most people. Granted, people pay school taxes whether they have kids at all, let alone any in school, but it's a few hundred to a few thousand a year versus tens of thousands a year per child.