The big insurance companies are legal monopolies that function by favorable lawmaking. They do the bidding of the government, and in return, the government does

The big insurance companies are legal monopolies that function by favorable lawmaking. They do the bidding of the government, and in return, the government does their bidding. It's effectively a patron-client relationship. So, the point is: they are essentially organs of the state. The large US telecoms are a similar example. So, yes, because the insurers are state organs that guarantee everyone pays an equally high price to to subsidize everyone else, it is socialized medicine. Of course, this system cannot afford to give Americans the healthcare they demand (just as people in, say, Germany cannot get unlimited plastic surgery on the public dime). Resources are always limited. Moreover, it's only socialized medicine for the employed and their families. So that's why they came up with Obamacare. Obamacare will not fix the corporate cronyism, it will instead limit resources further by squeezing doctors and patients. We already have a doctor shortage in the US, and doctors are leaving the profession. There _will_ be a major medical crisis in this country in the next few decades. I expect to be one of the fortunate ones who will be able to pay for private healthcare or, if that's basically outlawed, flee abroad. Obama's legacy will be to create two separate health systems, one for the rich that is OK (but possibly not even located in the US), and one for the poor that is worse than what existed before. Of course in the end this will be blamed not on Obmaa, but on capitalism---it will be claimed that the rich are exploiting the poor, and that the rich just need to stop being so selfish. Further socialism will ensue.