It's not socialized medicine. Technically it made it possible to get insurance subsidized (or fully funded) if you cannot afford it, prevented insurers from pri

It's not socialized medicine. Technically it made it possible to get insurance subsidized (or fully funded) if you cannot afford it, prevented insurers from pricing with anything but age/gender/tobacco/location, and dings you with small tax penalties if you don't buy it (on the assumption that everyone will eventually then buy insurance and the net cost to society will go down). Honestly, probably a better long term solution than socialized medicine, but it still allows individuals the freedom to screw up and not buy insurance.