The White House has a new report claiming that government-funded health insurance is socialism, and is just like Stalinism and Maoism. You want single-payer? Think about the famine in the Ukraine! 1/ vox.com/policy-and-pol…
This is, of course, ridiculous; the report even tries to make its case by pointing out that US seniors have short wait times -- apparently forgetting that seniors receive, um, Medicare 2/
But it's also worth noting that there is history here. The right has been making claims like this for generations. In 1961 Ronald Reagan headlined a campaign to block the enactment of Medicare, claiming that it would destroy freedom 3/
I don't think it did. In fact, one thing attacks on "socialized medicine" somehow acknowledge that in terms of the money, we're already mostly there: Medicare and Medicaid account for more health care than private insurance 4/ 
More *people* have private coverage via their employers, but public programs cover the elderly and disabled -- like those seniors with relatively low wait times -- who have high costs. Oh, and employer insurance is heavily subsidized and regulated 5/
So the whole scare campaign against socialism, which is really an attempt to block health reform, is obvious historical garbage. But hey, we're talking about a party that still insists that tax cuts pay for themselves 6/
