In the Wednesday letter, “All insurance plans socialistic,” the writer uses the term “socialism” or “socialist” five times.
Insurance of all kinds, whether fire, auto or health, spreads the cost among all people so that those who suffer a great loss don’t bear all the cost burden — that’s the basic idea. However, it’s not socialism.
Socialism by definition is when the state owns the means of production. The VA health system is socialized medicine — the government owns the hospitals and the doctors, nurses and other workers are government employees. Nothing short of that is socialism. Neither Medicade nor Medicare is socialized medicine.
Whether he realized it or not, the writer made a great case for a single-payer system.
Jerry Fraser
Lynnwood
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