The US doesn't have universal healthcare, so there's not a great mechanism for health care workers to earn a living without charging client for it. Some charities excepted.

The money going into medicare is enough to extend coverage to all americans provided the system is run with the cost efficiency of the typical EU healthcare system.

But then people go into debt to pay the tax to pay the other guy's medical debt.

I'm not entirely sure you understand how taxes work.

Yes because no one is in debt as a result of making insufficient income after tax deductions, and no one owes tax debt.

Well I think that's the entire point of this article: to call attention to the overwhelming crisis of medical debt in the US, and the need for us to create a great mechanism to deal with it.

Just because we don't currently have a functioning healthcare system doesn't mean we can't have one ever. As more people are made aware of how pervasive the issue is, there will be more impetus for those in power to start doing something about it.