This is very much an outsider’s perspective on the US health care debate, but I find the level of fear and hate generated by this topic hard to understand. The changes that are being proposed, even with a public option, are a very long way short of single payer healthcare and are certainly not socialised medicine.

Besides, the US already has the single payer Medicare system for the over 65s, the people that are the heaviest consumers of healthcare, and that doesn’t seem to arouse the same level of fear. The Veterans Adminstration Healthcare System meets the classic definition of socialised medicine (both owned and funded by the government), and it seems to be performing well.

washingtonmonthly.com

So, my question is, what is about these changes (which seem a long way short of the government involvement seen in Mecdicare and the VA) that causes such opposition?

Full disclosure: I have a professional interest in this. I’m a PhD student who works on comparing international health care. My main area of interest is access to pharmaceuticals, but I also have a keen interest in the general health systems.