An Unconventional Way to Support Health Expenditure

Abstract

Here, we propose a taxation scheme towards the implementation of universal health care under Beveridge model. In our proposed framework, a small amount of health tax is imposed on each and every non-cash transaction including transactions through debit and credit card, credit transfer, direct debit and cheque which is found to be solely sufficient to cover up entire health expenditure of a nation. We have shown empirically that a 1.84 USD levy on every non-cash transaction is enough to meet up the annual health expenditure in the CEMEA (Central Europe, Middle East and Africa) region. For Latin America (LA), Emerging Asia (EA), Mature Asia and the Pacific (MAP) and North America (NA) this value is found to be 4.51, 2.04, 15.93 and 21.07 USD respectively. Moreover, as the proposed levy is collectable electronically without any human intervention, no additional logistic support is required for the implementation of the scheme.