Socialized Medicine” Is Nothing to Fear

Reliably on-message even from beyond the grave, the voice of Ronald Reagan has recently been resurrected by Rush Limbaugh to denounce government-sponsored health insurance, chiefly because the tape of Reagan’s talk repeatedly invokes the smear of the day, “socialized medicine.”

Socialized medicine? Fine by me.

I also support socialized law enforcement. It makes perfect sense that we have our police paid for by our taxes and equally responsive and available to all of us. I appreciate the fact that there is no for-profit security force deciding that a pre-existing robbery forfeits my ability to call 911 in an emergency.

Same goes for fire protection, sewer services, and road maintenance. All socialized, all working well, especially considering the every-man-for-himself alternative. Socialized libraries and parks seem pretty popular, too.

There have certainly been efforts to transform government functions into for-profit ventures, but the investments in privatization have yielded more debacles than dividends.

The security contractor Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe Services, stands accused of bribing Iraqi officials in 2007 after the company’s employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians. Here in Indiana, Governor Daniels cancelled IBM’s billion-dollar –plus welfare privatization contract after evidence piled up that the company and its subcontractors, including Affiliated Computer Services, thoroughly botched eligibility determinations and benefits management.

It is enough to cause Ayn Rand to run into the arms of Eugene V. Debs.

In fairness, none of this would have been a surprise to Rand, who conceded that the market is not well-suited to provide some services, like police protection.

Health care needs to be added to that list. If you don’t believe me, ask the 70 million-plus uninsured or underinsured Americans who are casualties of the U.S.’s open-market scheme.

You can find them in emergency rooms and bankruptcy courts, struggling with the pain of neglected illness and the bills for last-minute care they could not afford.

These Americans would suffer less if they lived in almost any other industrialized country, where socialized medicine is seen as a blessing, not a slur. Care is cheaper and more widely available via government-run healthcare in countries like Japan and Great Britain, whose lawmakers apparently rank the well-being of their economy and their constituents higher than the fear of being labeled socialists.

As it happens, the Reagan warnings dusted off by Limbaugh came true right here in the U.S.

Reagan’s attack on “socialized medicine” was part of a 1961 effort to defeat the legislation that would become Medicare. Reagan’s red-baiting failed, and Medicare has proven to be far more efficient than private insurance and is rated higher by its insureds than those who are privately covered.

In fact, some of the most virulent recent protestors of health insurance reform have rallied under the banner, “Keep government hands off my Medicare.”

Oxymoronic messaging aside, they have their socialized medicine and intend to hang onto it, thank you very much.

For the millions of under-served and over-billed Americans without adequate health coverage, they too would happily embrace exactly what Reagan and Limbaugh would have us fear.


Fran Quigley
Visiting Professor of Law
Indiana University School of Law--Indianapolis
Also, Associate Director, Indiana-Kenya Partnership/USAID-AMPATH, and Staff Attorney, Indiana Legal Service

We live in France 3/4's of the year.. Our visa qualifies us for the French system... Security is a health care system that is affordable, reliable, and of first class care.. It is.. Our doctor would not let my wife out of the hospital even when she was ready to go home, without signing a form saying she was denying his prescribed treatment.. Can you imagine.. !...
. We live near Toulouse. there is an American Expat organization in Toulouse.. It's been estimated 1000 Americans live in the Toulouse area. We've been involved in a regional American expat organization there.. At club activities we've been to never have we heard our expat friends say , we miss American health care.. Quite the opposite, their comments were, if the US does not reform their system; we might not be able to return to America because it would be unaffordable and of lesser quality - to their disappointment..