There seems to be some kind of special blind spot in the US that makes Americans think that provision of services is somehow completely unrelated to taxation. This bizarre and irrational belief seems to be the undercurrent in almost all US political discourse; and leads to the sort of 'gotcha' claims by political opponents that belong in mental hospitals.
If the citizens of Vermont no longer have to pay for healthcare to HMOs, who then pay for hospitals, doctors, nurses, etc., but instead the same total sum of money is to be paid by the State Government, from taxation revenue, to hospitals, doctors, nurses, etc., then there is no question that the people of Vermont can afford the new system. Of course, there will be some changes in the details of exactly who pays how much; but then, that is the whole point of the exercise.
If I currently pay Telstra $500 a month for my mobile phone, and decide to switch to Optus, it is insane to say "You can't switch to Optus, because you can't afford it - their service costs $400 a month, and your savings are only $10 a month after paying your existing bills". I am not going to keep paying for the service I no longer use, so i can pay for the new one using that money, without touching my savings.
It makes exactly the same sense to say 'Vermont can't afford single payer healthcare, because it would cost as much as their current total tax revenue'.
Raising new taxes to pay for new services does not seem to me to be unimaginable - indeed, it sounds completely sensible, to the point that is doesn't even need to be mentioned. Of course, if your government spends twice as much money next year as they do this year, they will need to raise twice as much revenue through taxes. How is this surprising, much less horrifying or unthinkable?
Why would a citizen be devastated by the idea of paying an extra $100 a month in taxes, if at the same time he is paying $100 a month less in health insurance premiums?
Taxes are not taken by the government and burned. They are spent on citizens. Sure, some of your taxes are wasted paying for bureaucrats, administrators and over-paid managers; but this is not a point of difference between taxes and health insurance premiums - so where is the beef?