We would need a bit more than $900 billion per year to fully fund a US version of the British National Health Service (universal health care).

How to pay for the US National Health Service? In 2007, the combined Federal, State, and local government expenditure on health care was $1035.7 billion. So, we can fully nationalize health care with the US National Health Service, and cut government health care spending by about $100 billion per year at the same time. No additional tax source is needed. Now $100 billion is not that significant, in relation to our $10+ trillion national debt – but by adopting a US National Health Service, we eliminate the need for private health care expenditures. Adopting a US version of Britain’s National Health Service will free up more than $1.2 trillion per year in funds no longer needed to pay for private health care expenditures. This money should be collected in the form of increased taxes, and used to pay down the (largely Republican-incurred) national debt – the national debt could be fully paid off within ten to fifteen years, if this is done.

The bottom line is that we are already paying for universal health care, we just aren’t receiving it.

/Data from: the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary, National Health Statistics Group; U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis; the U.S. Bureau of the Census; and the UK NHS