Re socialized medicine. See nothing wrong with it what so ever; and I'm heavy into BMY. For the betterment of society, if socialized medicine appears the most practical approach to ease the ills of the populace... so be it.

IMHO socialized medicine is as much a failure as privatized medicine. I lived in New Zealand when people were dropping dead because the budget for non-emergency and emergency coronary bypasses (PTCAs and CABGs) had been consummed by October. The paper, Otago Daily Times, during November and December kept a body count.

Socialized medicine does nothing to shift the direction of health care away from critical care and towards preventative. The only effective means of doing this is through charging those who do not participate in adequate preventative care. This cant be done under socialized medicine. Of course, neither can it be done in the USA, where malpractice lawyers have lobbied fiercely against it.