[Lancey Howard]

First, what is called "taxes" in this article are not "taxes" but "social charges", in the sense that they don't go to the government as the article pretends, but to other organisations in charge of pensions, health insurance, etc. which include fully private for-profit insurance companies

Ah, so these "social charges" are optional and voluntary, and are not mandated by ze government.
Well, then this story certainly is inaccurate.

[zefrog]

There's quite a difference between saying that these social charges are taxes which go directly to the government and saying that these expenses are made mandatory by legal regulations, don't you think so? After all, when a foreigner enters US soil, the US government makes it mandatory for him to take a health insurance which will cover him in the US. Whant would you say if some french journalist pretended that the money he will have to spend for this is a tax which goes directly in the pocket of the US governement?