Editing Socialized medicine (section)

==Background==
The original meaning was confined to systems in which the government operates health care facilities and employs health care professionals.<ref name="NPR"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/57/S0525700.html|title=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210141328/http://www.bartleby.com/61/57/S0525700.html|archive-date=February 10, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/65/so/socmed.html|title=The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition|url-status=deviated|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111064610/http://www.bartleby.com/65/so/socmed.html|archive-date=November 11, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Jacob S. Hacker |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032102743.html |title=Socialized Medicine: Let's Try a Dose, We're Bound to Feel Better |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822064338/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032102743.html |archive-date=August 22, 2016 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=March 23, 2008}}</ref> This narrower usage would apply to the British [[National Health Service]] hospital trusts and health systems that operate in other countries as diverse as Finland, Spain, Israel, and Cuba. The United States [[Veterans Health Administration]] and the medical departments of the [[Army Medical Department (United States)|U.S. Army]], [[Surgeon General of the United States Navy|Navy]], and [[Air Force Medical Service|Air Force]], would also fall under this narrow definition. When used in that way, the narrow definition permits a clear distinction from [[single-payer health care|single payer health insurance]] systems, in which the government finances health care but is not involved in care delivery.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Single Payer article from AMSA |url=http://www.amsa.org/uhc/SinglePayer101.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061024133141/http://www.amsa.org/uhc/SinglePayer101.pdf |archive-date=October 24, 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=25521|title=MedTerms medical dictionary|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930180758/http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=25521|archive-date=September 30, 2007}}</ref>

More recently, American conservative critics of [[Health care reform in the United States|health care reform]] have attempted to broaden the term by applying it to any publicly funded system. [[Medicare (Canada)|Canada's Medicare]] system and most of the UK's NHS [[general practitioner]] and [[dentistry|dental]] services, which are systems where health care is delivered by private business with partial or total government funding, fit the broader definition, as do the health care systems of most of Western Europe. In the United States, [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]], [[Medicaid]], and the [[US military]]'s [[TRICARE]] fall under that definition. In specific regard to military benefits of a (currently) volunteer military, such care is an owed benefit to a specific group as part of an economic exchange, which muddies the definition yet further.

Most industrialized countries and many developing countries operate some form of publicly funded health care with universal coverage as the goal. According to the [[Institute of Medicine]] and others, the United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not provide [[universal health care]].<ref name="IOM">{{cite web |url=http://www.iom.edu/?id=17848 |title=Insuring America's Health: Principles and Recommendations |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070818031109/http://www.iom.edu/?id=17848 |archive-date=August 18, 2007 |url-status=dead |website=Institute of Medicine at the National Academies of Science |date=January 14, 2004 |access-date=October 22, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://cthealth.server101.com/the_case_for_universal_health_care_in_the_united_states.htm|title=The Case for Universal Health Care in the United States|website=cthealth.server101.com|access-date=April 27, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423105127/http://cthealth.server101.com/the_case_for_universal_health_care_in_the_united_states.htm|archive-date=April 23, 2018}}</ref>

[[Jonathan Oberlander]], a professor of health policy at the [[University of North Carolina]], maintains that the term is merely a political pejorative that has been defined to mean different levels of government involvement in health care, depending on what the speaker was arguing against at the time.<ref name="NPR">{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2007/12/06/16962482/socialized-medicine-belittled-on-campaign-trail |title=Socialized Medicine Belittled on Campaign Trail |website=NPR}}</ref>

The term is often used by conservatives in the U.S. to imply that the privately run health care system would become controlled by the government, thereby associating it with [[socialism]], which has negative connotations to some people in American political culture.<ref name="MFriedman">{{Cite web|url=http://www.hillsdale.edu/hctools/imprimis_archive/2006/07/2006_07_Imprimis.pdf |title=Free to Choose: A Conversation with Milton Friedman |access-date=April 14, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080530160511/http://www.hillsdale.edu/hctools/imprimis_archive/2006/07/2006_07_Imprimis.pdf |archive-date=May 30, 2008 }}</ref> As such, its usage is controversial,<ref name="autogenerated6" /><ref name="autogenerated3" /><ref name="autogenerated1" /><ref name="NPR" /> and at odds with the views of conservatives in other countries prepared to defend socialized medicine such as [[Margaret Thatcher]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2009/08/the-end-is-nye/ |title=The end is Nye, by Philip Johnston {{pipe}} Public Finance Opinion |access-date=March 17, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723184018/http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2009/08/the-end-is-nye/ |archive-date=July 23, 2011 }}</ref>  According to a 2018 [[Gallup (company)|Gallup]] poll, 37% of American adults have a positive view of socialism, including 57% of Democrat-leaning voters and 16% of Republican-leaning voters.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/240725/democrats-positive-socialism-capitalism.aspx |title=Democrats More Positive About Socialism Than Capitalism|date=August 13, 2018 }}</ref>