Hi masbury!

The usual argument against having a national health insurance program is that it's "Socialism!"

Of course, "socialism" is an arrangement under which the means of production are owned by the state. Government-run health insurance is not "socialism,"and only an ignoramus would call it that. Rather, government-run health insurance is a form of "social insurance," that can be coupled with privately owned for-profit or not-for-profit health care delivery systems.

Conservative critics of "social insurance" often forget that they benefit from many other forms of "social insurance" -- e.g., the principle of limited liability of shareholders, which is the rockbed of capitalism. In a ...

Hi masbury!

The usual argument against having a national health insurance program is that it's "Socialism!"

Of course, "socialism" is an arrangement under which the means of production are owned by the state. Government-run health insurance is not "socialism,"and only an ignoramus would call it that. Rather, government-run health insurance is a form of "social insurance," that can be coupled with privately owned for-profit or not-for-profit health care delivery systems.

Conservative critics of "social insurance" often forget that they benefit from many other forms of "social insurance" -- e.g., the principle of limited liability of shareholders, which is the rockbed of capitalism. In a real sense, the national defense system also is a form of "social insurance" against threats from abroad. People in the farmbelt may never rail against "socialized medicine," because so much of their income is protected by another form of social insurance, agricultural price supports and import restrictions (like the sugar quota.)

In fact, none other than Hank Greenberg, former CEO of the huge AIG insurance company, asked for government help to protect insurance companies from catastrophic losses such as those following 9/11. That, too, is "social insurance."

I have gotten tired of ignoramuses who call social insurance "socialism," all the while being beneficiaries of it. One has the right to argue with them quite aggressively and ad hominem (or ad feminam), if the case fits. Republican Governors think nothing of going to Washington, hat in hand, demanding federal emergency funds after a natural disaster has struck their state. Well, breast cancer or severe neonatal illness is a natural disaster too, and there is nothing socialist about an individual in Texas or Mississippi asking her fellow Americans for helping financially with coping with that natural disaster as well.

Perhaps I am wrong, of course, in my assumption that this is a nation, and not just a bunch of people shar