It is only “socialize” if private insurance is “socialism.”
If the insurance is government mandated it is not really private is it? Free market solutions require freedom of the purchaser and the seller. Mandated health care purchases are equate to socialized Medicine.
RomneyCare includes subsidized and “free” (aka, taxpayer-funded) coverage for those who can’t afford it. This is on top of Medicaid. That’s socialisim—in addition to the fascism of the goverment forcing people to buy a product.
From CATO (the whole article is worthwhile):
Before RomneyCare was enacted, estimates of the number of uninsured in Massachusetts ranged from 372,000 to 618,000. Under the new program, about 219,000 previously uninsured residents have signed up for insurance. Of these, 133,000 are receiving subsidized coverage, proving once again that people are all too happy to accept something “for free,” and let others pay the bill. That is in addition to 56,000 people who have been signed up for Medicaid. The bigger the subsidy, the faster people are signing up. Of the 133,000 people who have signed up for insurance since the plan was implemented, slightly more than half have received totally free coverage.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v30n1/cpr30n1-1.html