There's also the option of the way the UK does it. You pay insurance. It's even called that - National Insurance. There is no alternative. Not having a National Insurance number is like not having a SSN. If you are in specific situations (student, low income, self-employed below a certain threshold etc) you become exempt from stamp, but it's still insurance.
It's so well-entrenched and forgettable (comes out along with tax and student loan repayments - but I shouldn't stir that hornets' nest!) that hardly anyone realises what it is, or its origins as, quite descriptively, a nationalised form of healthcare and unemployment insurance.
It's the same thing here. I was describing this from a freelancer's point of view, who has to actually take out the money, but if you're in the system in any way (employed, unemployed, student) you don't even know you pay it.
It's so well-entrenched and forgettable (comes out along with tax and student loan repayments - but I shouldn't stir that hornets' nest!) that hardly anyone realises what it is, or its origins as, quite descriptively, a nationalised form of healthcare and unemployment insurance.