[quote=SK in CV]And no, the public option would not satisfy my socialism definition. No goods or services would be manufactured or distributed by the government.[/quote]
Really? No services distributed? Who would pay the doctors? Who would set their salaries? Who would pay for the medical care? What would your medical card say? Those would all be *services* provided by the government. Like the VA, only bigger.
If I go in and get a knee replacement, isn’t that a “good distributed by the government”?
Hasn’t there also been talk of setting the prices for medications? Doesn’t that become control over “production” because the prices are not market-driven?
Under the public option the government would make huge purchases of medicines, equipment, etc. At some point say a few years from now, might some wise guy congressman (or president) say “Damn those fat cat pharma companies, let’s just make the drugs ourselves”?
