My patient told me the other day that he didn’t think that this “socialized medicine thing” would be a good idea. I asked him how he liked his Medicare coverage, and he said he wouldn’t want to do without it. When I explained that Medicare is not only “socialized” medical insurance but is essentially single-payer socialized medicine, he was astounded.

Many Americans have fallen prey to the doomsday propaganda being spread by some of the misinformed among us, who act as though socialized medicine is something foreign to the USA. The reality is that we’ve had a very successful form of it here for decades. I have not heard from a single patient who wants to give up his or her coverage.

In addition, even so-called “private” insurance is subsidized by the taxpayer: Employer-paid health insurance premiums are tax-free benefits. Those lost revenues are replaced by society and are a form of socialized health insurance.

Finally, the patients who are without insurance are often covered by county and state indigent funds. This is yet another way we socialize the cost of medicine. The concept is not foreign, but the challenge is to make it fair for everyone.

Justin StormoGipson, M.D.

Coeur d’Alene