Interesting post. However we can identify core public health. Antibiotics, non-cosmetic surgeries, evidence based effective diagnostic and treatment approaches. There is alot of treatment studies done in the west to identify efficacies of treatment. There are alot of life-saving drugs and surgeries on the market. My uncle when he had a heart attack and died at age 35 - a thrombolytic injection cost him 3000$ something maybe more than 70% kenyans cant afford. Infact my hometown has no angiographic or cardiothoracic expertise and thus no other intervention was pursued. A dialysis session in my home town of mombasa costs 15,000 Kshs a session and you are required 3-4 sessions a week. Most people in kenya earn approx 20,000 to 40,000 kshs/month and perhaps even less. Definitely a significant portion of these earn around less than 5,000 Kshs. I am sure many poor muslim countries face the same problem. Private Health approach is wrong for so many reasons. A core set of treatment 'items' needs to be discussed and I am of a strong opinion that zakat wont be able to cover that cost in addition to other societal needs of a nation. Thus these core treatments need to be funded by the public through tax. I agree ICU costs will be tricky especially with a Muslim approach to end of life ethics. However end of life care needs to be discussed and debated amongst Muslims more. Public health care is the way to go and governments and doctors need to be emphasized and educated about cost-conscious medicine. Cost-quality compromise need to be discussed in the context of nations revenues and riches. We dont want robotic heart surgeries in yemen and niger. But we do want appendicectomies, malaria, tb, antibiotic treatments, funding for them to be admitted o/night to hospital e.t.c. All these are basic but very expensive things in the modern world. TB treatment is curative but lasts for 9 months. Public health care is needed and an appropriate tax rate in Muslim lands is justifiable. The government should set up a health proffessional advisory committee to decide what is basic health treatment in the context of the countries wealth and an appropriate tax needs to be levied to make sure basic treatment is attainable for all - remmeber basic is also very costly and thus the need of tax - . Unfortunately the the more poverty in a country the more the middle and upper class should be taxed to cover this basic health. Other treatments which falls out of this basic core should be paid by voluntary activisim and sadaqah arrangemet. Thus if someone has brain tumour. The community should arrange his her operation if he cannot afford. In that way tax towards health care will not be exorbitant western kind of tax. Same for education. Muslims ethically should teach and educate for lesser prices than westerners. Educators, lecturers and teachers dont deserve the exorbitant pays they receeive in the west. Thus that way again our tax will be much lower. Muslims dont have a military industrial complex aggressive mentality. Thus our military expenditure is just defensive. Again our tax goes lower. Infact one Muslim country having nuclear is enough for most of us to not pursue nuclear. If nuclear weapons only purpose is deterence - a unified agreement amongst the muslim bloc can be agreed about it. Thats why I keep on referring to the modern civilization and its costs. Compulsory tax needs to be levied unless I am missing something here. Zakat is 2.5% of savings if I am not wrong. I have no idea how this would cover costs in this costly world civilization. I am arguing for a low compulsory tax but arguing that a tax system above zakat can be justified. Unless there is a unified muslim coalition of countries and pledge of wealth and resource distribution - some countries will have to engage in taxation. I think perhaps the solution to this dilemma is a quick Islamic union needs to be formed because I agree tax is not solution but an ethical social necessity despite in principle it being unethical concept .