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"Socialized medicine is a huge mistake, that few people understand"

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How right you are.

First they came for the smokers and diabetics, then ....

See this article:

New York City Starts To Monitor Diabetics

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1555802/posts

New York City is starting to monitor the blood sugar levels of its diabetic residents, marking the first time any government in the United States has begun tracking people with a chronic disease.

Under the program, the city is requiring laboratories to report the results of blood sugar tests directly to the health department, which will use the data to study the disease and to prod doctors and patients when levels run too high.

Some public health experts, ethicists and privacy advocates, however, say that the initiative raises serious concerns about confidentiality and is an alarming government intrusion into people's medical care.

But the New York effort marks the first time any government has required routine reporting of laboratory test results for a major chronic, noninfectious disease so that government officials can scrutinize how well doctors and patients are treating it.

The plan has alarmed privacy advocates, particularly because the information is being collected without first getting patients' consent.

"It's an incredible invasion to privacy to have your sensitive medical information grabbed by the city of New York," said Robin Kaigh, a New York lawyer who opposes the effort. "It shocks the conscience that they are not even required to tell you this is happening."

Here's my thing. They institute the HMO Act, which favored a few corporations...years later they repeal it, but they still have many legislative favors for these few companies--prevent real competition. Then it's all blamed on the free-market, as though that's really the free-market.

Ultimately both parties are full of people that either like the status quo of half-ass control or there super crazy and want full control. So the handful of geniune (free-market) people are left with little or no support.

It's eventual that medicare will die. Medicaid is a separate issue in itself, and I think the state government can properly debate over this, but most likely won't agree over it. I adhor conservatives that think small government is good, but 'maybe medicine should be socialized'...that sort of thinking is absolutely silly. Let's just say I don't see that often, though.