Single Payer health care means that there is one entity that pays for all healthcare. Typically, it also means that the single payer is also the single entity that collects the money to pay for health care. Since the early 20th century, the AMA and (later) the health insurance-hospital industry (collectively, the medical-industrial complex) have labeled this form of payment “socialized medicine.” That is an untruth.
Socialism is when the government owns the means of production–as in, for instance, when the government buys stock in a big insurance company (AIG) or a bank (Citibank) or an auto maker (GM??). Therefore, “socialized medicine” means that the government owns the hospitals, the doctor offices, and employs the doctors, etc. As a matter of fact, we have a very large “socialized medicine” entity in theUS now–it is called the Veteran’s Administration. We have long had other forms of “socialized medicine” such as county, city and state hospitals. We have clinics run by various governments. All of these are “socialized medicine.’