I am terrified of single-payer systems as implemented in socialist countries. Can this happen in the US? Was Obama trying to give everyone healthcare all along?
Most nations with single payer healthcare systems are not socialist nations. They’re democracies like the USA. The definition of socialism isn’t simply “has a government-financed healthcare system”.
The USA has many single payer systems. Roads, sewers, etc. That does not mean the USA is socialist.
The USA also has single payer health care systems. For example, military personnel have access to the government financed VA system.
The vast majority of people living in democratic nations with government-financed healthcare system would not want to give them up for a US model. Criticism of some aspect of your nation’s healthcare system does not necessarily mean, therefore, the US system is better.
If you had an excellent health plan you can never lose, typically those reserved for the very rich in America, you probably should be terrified of losing that plan and having to get in line with everyone else.
Matt Williams, Historian, professional writer, former educator.
Updated Dec 30
Why would you be afraid of this prospect? What about affordable, universal health care scares you? Is it the idea that everyone will be able to guarantee their own health and live full, productive lives? Is the idea that when you get sick, you know you will be able to get medical care? Or is it some ideological revulsion at the idea of “socialized medicine”?
If it is the last item, I got news for you. You’ve been effectively conditioned by decades of propaganda that sought to teach people that socialized medicine is somehow evil. In accordance with this Cold War-era philosophy, socialized medicine is evil because socialized anything means socialism, which in turn equals communism, which equals Stalinism.
In reality, socialized medicine means medicine that is guaranteed by the government and is paid for with taxes. Every democratic nation passed such measures in the immediate post-war era to ensure that their citizens had access to health care and could lead healthy, productive lives. It was a measure designed to end centuries where only those who could afford medical care would get it, while the poor and working class would be expected to suffer with illness or go broke paying for treatment.
The United States experienced this phenomena as well, with the advent of Medicare and Medicaid. And the results have spoken for themselves. In nations where socialized medicine (more properly known as universal health care) was introduced, populations experienced an increase in average life expectancy as the gap between the rich and the poor narrowed. Each of these nations, the US included, experienced the single-greatest increase in standards of living.
The only reason universal health care has been resisted in the US is because of the insurance lobby. During the Cold War era, they spent a fortune on advertising, and even hired then-actor Ronald Reagan, to spread the message.
