It cost Israel more than $1bn to activate its defence systems that intercepted Iran’s massive drone and missile attack overnight, according to a former financial adviser to Israel’s military.

“The defence tonight was on the order of 4-5bn shekels [$1-1.3bn] per night,” estimated Brigadier General Reem Aminoach in an interview with Ynet news.

“If we’re talking about ballistic missiles that need to be brought down with an Arrow system, cruise missiles that need to be brought down with other missiles, and UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], which we actually bring down mainly with fighter jets,” he said.

“Then add up the costs - $3.5m for an Arrow missile, $1m for a David’s Sling, such and such costs for jets. An order of magnitude of 4-5bn shekels.”

  • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    26
    ·
    7 months ago

    We spent 4.5 trillion on healthcare. We spent 886 billion on military including healthcare. Public health comes down to one question. How much more in taxes do you want to pay to cover it? I fully support it but just expect your taxes to consume a large part of your income. Since about 1/2 of people pay taxes. That’s a burden of about 26k per person to cover to it.

    • Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      7 months ago

      You’re touching on the most common misconception. Most people would pay less in taxes than they currently do in insurance premiums. The cost of healthcare would go down in the US with single payer. Even the ultra conservative Koch family funded Cato Institute found this to be true.

      There is way too much profit motive in the US healthcare system. So much so we pay double what other nations do for some procedures with generally worse outcomes. Last report I saw is the US spends 16% of GDP on healthcare. The next closest nation was Japan at 10%. Yet the US was among the lowest life expectancy of all G20 nations.

    • IamAnonymous@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      Maybe we should stop giving tax cuts for trillion dollar companies or ask them cover complete healthcare for their employees.

    • ABCDE@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      7 months ago

      In a profit driven system with much of it preventable in the right system.

      • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        7 months ago

        In most cases I’m not against profit. Due to the inelastic demand of medicine and the lack of true choice, I think profit should be limited.

      • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        12
        ·
        7 months ago

        Insurance. Employers, people.

        Even the year I had 3 surgeries I didn’t pay 26k out of pocket. I paid like 8k.

        As I said I’m not opposed but I’m also not foolish enough to think the average persons taxes won’t radically increase.

        • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          The math has been done a number of times on this. 2016 and 2020 the Sanders campaign did it then a number of independent think tanks and institutes “fact checked” it.

          At current levels of care most would expect to pay less.

          At the level of care where we’re no longer subsidizing emergency services for preventable diseases almost all would expect to pay less still.

          They won’t radically increase unless we get grifted.

          It’s hard to explain how saving money would equate to us paying more so I’m interested in the how.

          • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            20
            ·
            7 months ago

            Sanders is an idiot who is wrong about almost everything. He didn’t even understand how Income Works. He wants to tax wealth which he can’t grasp is unconstitutional.

            I would cite Bernie if you want anyone to take you serious. Nice man, just not very smart.

            • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              11
              ·
              edit-2
              7 months ago

              Christ dude I literally “cited” the campaign of Sanders that put out an idea as a platform and backed it with research and examples from the rest of the world.

              The studies were not done by Bernie Sanders himself but even had they been I’d dare you to refute them intelligently.

              You talk as if we ought to respect you but that also informs your opinion has no credibility.

              • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                12
                ·
                7 months ago

                You didn’t cite anything. You made a claim. A citation would have something I could verify. A claim is something I can’t verify. If Bernie is quoting it, it’s probably wrong. That man is dumb as a box of rocks.

                If you’d like to cite the Cato report, I’d love to read it. I can’t find it as you claimed

                • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  6
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  I cited nothing.

                  I quoted the word because you used it incorrectly in a myriad of ways.

                  Here’s one, it’s not by their campaign so maybe you might be able to throw that bias of yours out.

                  Sorry it came from Lancet and not Cato. These studies are literally EVERYWHERE it’s honestly hard work to truly believe what you do.

                  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8572548/

                  ^ the article was published in Lancet.

                  • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    11
                    ·
                    7 months ago

                    You either didn’t read the article or didn’t t read what I said. The numbers are similar to mine. Yet the article doesn’t address what I stated. A citation is supposed to prove a point. With was it would increase taxes which the article confirms would happen but doesn’t quantify it.

                    Also with the drop in wages for doctors and nurses, we would face another shortage.

            • AggressivelyPassive@feddit.de
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              10
              ·
              7 months ago

              If you would ignore your arrogance and lack of self awareness for a second, you could venture slightly outside the US for a comparison.

              Case in point: Germany. We do have a mixture of semi-public and private insurances, and I would argue on average better health care access than the US right now. Insurance rates for the default public insurance is something like 8% of your income before taxes, plus the same amount paid by your employer. It’s capped at about 420€ per month (so and 850€ including employer part). This insurance includes dependent children “for free”, and if you’re unemployed you’ll get insurance paid for you.

              So in short, 8% of your income, but never above 420€. Hardly any out of pocket payments. Comparable standard of care.

              That means, it’s absolutely possible, it’s just that some people are dense enough to almost collapse into themselves and prefer to be screwed over.

              • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                10
                ·
                7 months ago

                As I said I have no issues with changing our system. Just the average person doesn’t get they will pay more.

                I pay about 2400 a year for all my medical needs. That’s less than 1% of my income. Not even close to 8% and well below 420 euros.

                It’ll change the burden from the employer to the person which I’m fine with but the employers won’t just hand that money to you. So it increases your cost and increases their profits.

                We have to figure out an intelligent way to do it. Maybe tax revenue of companies to cover 1:2 and the population pays the other half.

                Just flipping a switch doesn’t solve the issue.

                • AggressivelyPassive@feddit.de
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  9
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  Are you seriously arguing, that earning 250k a year is even somewhere close to “average”? The average is somewhere around 40k.

                  Also, wait just a few years until medical bills kick in. There’s an over 50% chance you’ll get cancer at some point. You think you can cover that with 2400 a year?

                  • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    8
                    ·
                    7 months ago

                    DING DING DING the person you’re responding to is woefully out of touch with what “the average” person means.

                    They attack the intelligence of a someone without understanding what my statement was.

                  • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    12
                    ·
                    7 months ago

                    I make well over 250k a year.

                    Already had cancer. Still didn’t exceed 2400 a year. Only one year did I exceed 2400 dollars. That years was about 8k but that’s because I have three surgeries crossing a new year. That year I spent about 2% of my income in medical care. I’ve never been able to deduct medical care from my taxes which requires it to exceed 7.5%

                • OriginalMP3@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  I pay about 2400 a year for all my medical needs. That’s less than 1% of my income. Not even close to 8% and well below 420 euros.

                  Did you just argue that your $2400/year is well below €420/year? At current exchange rates it’s about $447, or about 18% of what you currently pay.

                  As others have pointed out, single payer is an overall cost save. It’s not hard to imagine creating a tax that companies pay to cover this with the money they will save from not offering insurance to full time employees.