# why not universal healthcare?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-universal-healthcare/389238>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 24, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-universal-healthcare/389238 "2007-01-24T14:35:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 9

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-universal-healthcare/389238/161 "2007-03-08T20:44:02Z")

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[QUOTE=Algher]  
Universal Healthcare certainly DOES imply government health care to the average American. This is especially true when people regularly state that America should have UHC just like the nations of Europe, who have their hospitals run by the government.

Now, it is not HAVE to equal that, but it certainly does IMPLY that.

[/QUOTE]

You may be right about that being what people think, but the reason would be right wing alarmism about “socialized medicine.” None of the single payer plans I have read about propose nationalizing either hospitals or doctors. This would seem both disruptive and generate more opponents in a battle that would be hard enough already. Do you have an example of a legitimate proposal for nationalization, one from a reasonable source? So I don’t think it implies it at all. When the AMA was fighting against Medicare, they called it socialized medicine also.

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