Is Socialized Healthcare Gaining Political Traction?

Joe Conason writes about the declining power of the term ‘socialized medicine:’

Why ‘Socialism’ Evokes No Fear

Once among the most frightening epithets in American political culture, “socialized medicine” seems to have lost its juju. Today that phrase sounds awfully dated, like a song on a gramophone or a mother-in-law joke or a John Birch Society rant against fluoridated water….

Mr. Canason indulges in some generic anti-Republican propaganda, but I believe his main thesis – that nationalized healthcare isn’t as frightening as it once was – is true.

I support nationalized healthcare for three reasons:

1. America spends more on healthcare, per capita, than any other industrialized nation with national healthcare. Furthermore, despite spending more, the quality of America’s healthcare is inferior. I don’t mind paying more for a better product, but I refuse to pay more for an inferior product just to satisfy absurd, unsubstantiated beliefs in the inherent moral greatness of the ‘free market.’
2. Health insurance is a zero-sum game. There’s a finite amount of ‘risk’ in the USA; insurance companies can only do better at the expense of other companies. They can, of course, try to reduce the amount of risk in their selection by promoting cheaper preventative techniques and healthy living. But this doesn’t actually solve anything – and the money health insurance companies spend trying to establish a low-risk, high-revenue portfolio is wasted. A (government) monopoly doesn’t have this problem: it inherits a well-balanced risk portfolio courtesy including everyone in the nation.
3. We have over 46 million Americans uninsured. The private system isn’t built to over health insurance to over 15% of the population?

Allow me to offer some expansion on precisely how much more we pay. I’ve graphed some statistical information pulled from the OECD and the US Census data.

US spending per capita, controlled for inflation, has increased from under $200 billion in the 1960s to over $1.5 trillion today.

Rising GDP doesn’t explain this, as healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP has increased from 5% to 15%. Americans are spending a greater portion of their income on healthcare. Are we getting better service? I’m not entire sure. Not to mention, we’re spending more as a percentage of GDP than England (and a number of other nations with ‘socialized healthcare’).

Not only do we spend more as a percentage of GDP – staggering when you consider that the USA has the largest GDP in the world – but we spend more in absolute terms as well, per capita:

The US Healthcare system is highly inefficient, and – in my opinion – should be nationalized. By all means, allow doctors and hospitals to operate privately. But the vast majority of healthcare – routine, common, preventative – should be handled by the government.