The word “socialism” is getting bandied about as we debate health care reform. It might be helpful to take a step back and think about all of the socialized things we take for granted. My friend Amanda Lester and I made a list of easily recognizable goods and services that are provided by government, and here is a sample: Social Security, public schools, Medicare, Medicaid, VA hospitals, interstates and highways, public parks, police, fire protection and military.

Each of these items could be considered “socialized,” but few people think twice about them. Everybody uses and depends on at least some of them. They are essentials that the free market isn’t able to deliver at a reasonable cost or in a way that gives everybody access. Or they don’t make a profit, so there is no incentive to provide them. Even Adam Smith, a founding father of capitalism, acknowledged that there are some things that should not be left to the “invisible hand” of the free market to distribute, and the government should take on those responsibilities.

In the current health care debate, it’s instructive to look back at how conservatives predicted Medicare would be the death knell of capitalism. Ronald Reagan cut a record in 1961 for the American Medical Association saying that if we don’t oppose Medicare, “… one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”

Obviously, nothing of the sort occurred, but reform opponents are using the same old scare tactic in today’s debate. In the (hopefully near) future, when health care reform is passed, it will be added to the list of government services we trust and take for granted.

Jennifer Vogt-Erickson

Albert Lea