LETTER: Universal health care comes with significant trade-offs

Kirk Rowe Las Vegas August 15, 2026 - 9:01 pm Jerry Sturdivant’s Aug. 7 letter correctly notes that the United States is unique among industrialized nations in not providing universal health care. But he overlooks the trade-offs nations accept to finance and sustain their systems. Universal health care is not free. It is funded through higher taxes, mandatory payroll contributions or broad-based consumption taxes such as the value-added taxes common in many European countries. A system of this scale would almost certainly require contributions from a much broader segment of Americans, not simply “taxing the rich.” Many lower-income households currently pay little or no federal income tax, so financing universal coverage would likely require broader tax increases or mandatory contributions.